Our kids know we have an open iPad policy in our house when it comes to reading texts and conversations our kids participate in online.
This act of consensual reading or “spying” as the kids are calling it happens to work for us as parents.
Will we always peruse the devices to see who our kids are talking to?
Not if we’re too busy thawing an elf on a shelf that may or may not require resuscitation after Queen Elsa from the movie Frozen cast a spell on him that left him quivering in a block of ice and our six year old paralyzed with fear.
If only I had been able to find a sharpie, the letters “DNR” would have been written across his smug, little elf cap and this game would be over.
At least I know what DNR stands for.
Yesterday, when the kids were at school and I was re-formatting the spreadsheet for all of the Secret Santa exchanges my kids have volunteered me to bake and/or shop for, I picked up Hanna’s iPad after it beeped at me to pick it up. It was more of a train horn sound that caught my attention. When I opened the cover, there was an active conversation happening and I realized I really don’t understand most of what kids are saying to each other because of the abbreviations or “breves” as they will soon say.
Later when I was back on my spreadsheets, highlighting the dollar values vs. homemade gifts columns, I opened a new window and did a google search for “What does ‘lk’ mean?”
A series of about thirty billion texting related abbreviations populated my screen in alphabetical order, including my favourite, the short form for Ralph Macchio (the beloved star of the Karate Kid franchise) ROTFLMAO.
LK didn’t show up in the L section so I did what all great detectives do. I got bored and starting looking up ways to revive a dead elf on a shelf.
After dinner, Hanna was on my laptop working on a nutrition project for school.
She typed in, “What does protein do for the cells” and under that search were the words, “What does lk mean?”
Hanna: Mom, were you looking up what “IK” means today?
Me: No.
Hanna: It’s in your browser history.
Technically, officer, I was looking up what “LK” meant when I guess I should have been looking up what “IK” meant so, technically, no. No I wasn’t.
Hanna: It means “I know” in case you were wondering.
That does make more sense than Lenny Kravitz.
