The Tattler

I keep saying that if my daughter does not grow up to be a reporter, I will be surprised!
She has now acquired another skill to put on her resume when she applies for that journalism gig: photography.
A while back, I may have hurt her feelings when she came running in asking “Do you want to know what Christian did?” and my immediate response was “no.”
I explained that if no one is hurt and no one is in immediate danger, she does not need to come tell me everything. Things have improved recently and I thought our talk had made sense to her. I should have been more suspicious from the outset.
Parents know that once life gets too quiet, while wonderful and peaceful, it is also a bit alarming (you know it’s just too good to be true). Lately however, I have chosen to savor the peace for a few minutes before investigating. They have been fine. Smiling conspiratorially—yes, but fine. I could not find any damage to them or the house nor did I find anything missing or broken.
Then we picked up the latest pictures Natalie took with her new camera.
The naked pictures of Christian, while inappropriate (I have to get photos developed somewhere else now), I could handle. He was in no immediate physical danger at that moment. The pictures after that however showed Christian sitting in a bathroom sink. There is no counter in that bathroom. It is a small pedestal sink and I did not want to even think about how he got in there. (The next photo showed him on a stool, hanging on the sink so that mystery was quickly solved anyway).
The good news (?) in all of this is that Christian is finally having trouble saying “I didn’t do it,” “She’s lying,” etc.
So—do I quit stealing a few minutes on the computer here and there during the day so I can watch them every second? Or do I go on with my life and wait until they start blogging themselves and just catch up on their escapades on line?(My daughter is pacing back and forth now waiting for her turn on the computer to play a computer game. I used to encourage such things so she’d have computer skills as she gets older. This was perhaps not the best idea I have ever had.)