Not a secret in Stuff

I’m definitely not the snooping type. My kids know they have no expectation of privacy. I reserve the right to go into their rooms at any time for any reason, and they know I actually do. I would hate that if I were them, but I know having the threat that I will find anything they try to hide has helped keep them honest.

I also make sure they know I will go through their phones whenever I feel like it. I insist on knowing how to unlock their phones and will periodically (at least weekly) pick up one of their phones and unlock it just to confirm they haven’t changed anything and locked me out.

So when I say I don’t snoop, I also want to make it clear I don’t give them free reign to do whatever they want.

Last night I was at the kitchen sink washing some dishes and Olsen was sitting in the yard in a chair right outside the window over the sink. She was sitting with her back to me, and the way she was holding her phone I could clearly see the screen. I wouldn’t normally have given that much thought, except I glanced at it long enough to see she was texting with Megan. Suddenly I found myself just staring out the window reading her screen while they texted.

Paraphrasing from memory, this is about what I read:

Olsen: What are you doing right now?
Megan: Laying in bed watching Forensic Files. I’m an old lady.
Olsen: Is that still a show?
Megan: No, it’s old. Netflix. Care to join me?
Olsen: I was hoping you’d ask.
Megan: I need to give you a key so I don’t have to walk down two flights of stairs in cases like this.
Olsen: My mom doesn’t have one?
Megan: No, although I’m not sure why I didn’t give her one yet.
Olsen: OK, meet you at the door in 5.

She walks inside and sees me at the sink. She comes over and gives me a hug, which is a normal thing for her to do before going to bed. Then she says, “I’m headed over to Megan’s for the night” and then disappears from the room without waiting for a response.

They’ve been openly affectionate with each other since the camping trip but at no point has either of them really said anything to me about what’s going on between them. On the other hand, obviously she was making no attempt to keep her plans a secret, so maybe she feels like that’s enough of an explanation.

I came very close to texting Megan and asking her. But then I had this vision of her showing the text to Olsen and decided it was something we’d have to talk about in person.

Last updated June 05, 2018