Would You Snoop On Your Kids? - And would you let them know you snooped?

Crystalina wrote: This is for if you had a teenager who you thought may be doing something they shouldn't.

My answer is yes I would snoop but no I wouldn't tell them. What they don't know that I know won't hurt them.

Edited to clarify the "telling" part.
Telling as in they know that you will snoop even before you do not just after you find something.

momofone replied: I do already -

Boo&BugsMom replied: You bet! Your business is my business until you are not in my house anymore. Not sure on the telling. Depends what I found/did not find and on the situation.

mckayleesmom replied: Since parents can now be held accountable for their childrens actions in some things these days.....Heck ya....Till you are 18 and not living under my roof...I will snoop.

danahas4monkeys replied: I voted yes and yes I would tell them. We recently had this event in our house lol. And had I not told her I snooped she would have had no idea why she was being punished. Trust has to be earned and when that is broken you have to start from step one, she knows what she did was wrong and learned her lesson.

Boys r us replied: Without a doubt I DO snoop!!! I'm the mom...the parent..it's my business and my duty to know what the heck my kids are up to..and I don't keep that a secret!

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Yes I snoop and Yes they know about it.

MommyToAshley replied: I haven't had to snoop yet as Ashley is only 5. She still tells on herself when she does something wrong... LOL. As she gets older, I can honestly say that I will probably snoop. And, I would probably let her know. I hope to continue to have an open relationship and I hope that I won't have to tell her that I found something out that she should have told me herself.

TheOaf66 replied: if you don't snoop how would you be able to keep up the illusion that you know all and see all

Hillbilly Housewife replied: i don't consider it snooping... everything in my house is mine. I bought it. I put it there. If they want to buy something themselves, by all means go for it.... but you bring it into MY house, I want to see what it is.

I plan on having them have a journal of some kind... that no matter what they write in it, they can feel free to share with me, and nothing that they can write in it they will get in trouble for having written in there. There are consequences for their actions... such as they write about having smoked a cigarette - well fine, they tried it. They'll do it. And even if they don't... I want them to have the knowledge that they can feel comfortable enough to tell me and we can talk about it. Would I ransack their room trying to find their cigarettes? No. But we WILL have a discussion about it.

luvmykids replied: You bet. Some things we are open about the snooping, some we aren't. We pay for Nikka's phone and the deal is no deleting messages and we have the right to browse them at any time. We also answer it from time to time.
If there were something else going on we might not let on in order to keep her from hiding it more, kwim? But so far all we've dealt with is her phone and boys calling/texting.

I don't think of it really as snooping though, I think of it more as being aware of what your kid is doing.

gr33n3y3z replied: yes and yes if I had to

mckayleesmom replied: You know what? I don't consider it snooping. Like I tell Mckaylee.....I pay for the room she is sleeping in....therefore technically its mine.

holley79 replied: Yes, we did this with Brandon. We had a feeling he was doing something he wasn't supposed to. It's my house. If you are doing something you aren't supposed to and you know darn good and well it's against the rules then it's not snooping.

redchief replied: I don't need to snoop... Lisa takes care of that. I just out and tell them what I want. They don't give, they pay the consequences.

Calimama replied: Yes.. and I'd tell them.

MoonMama replied: Yes I would snoop & yes I would tell.

TrulyBlessed replied: Yes, I will snoop and yes I would tell them. I understand they need some of their own privacy but it is my responsibility to keep them safe and watch for warning signs.