Did anyone catch last night’s episode of The Simpsons?  The funny part: Bart finding Denis Leary’s phone and prank calling bars around the world.  The educational part for parents: putting a GPS tracking on your child’s phone will make you lose any trust or credibility you have with them.

In the “Last Verizon” episode, Bart begs Marge for a cell phone, but she doesn’t give in.  He discovers that he can make money by picking up balls at the country club, but is weaseled out of it by Groundskeeper Willie.  Disappointed, Bart comes across a cell phone that was thrown away by Denis Leary and the around the world prank calling begins. Muahhahhahahah. Bart also agrees on Leary’s behalf to a movie proposed by Brian Grazer that involves apes and feces. Yikes!

Leary eventually finds out who has his cell phone and calls Bart to chew him out.  Marge also discovers that Bart has a cell phone.  In a conversation Marge and Leary have, he tells her that Bart can keep the phone, but that she should activate the GPS. That’s where I draw the line.

Look parents, if you ever want your kids to trust you, you have to trust them!  If they screw up let them face the consequences, but don’t think some preemptive strike will prevent it first. Luckily Marge learned her lesson by the end of the episode.

Source: Fox

NIECEE’s TAKE AWAYS:

• Parental Monitoring. In high school, my mom chaperoned one of my dances because she had to put in some community volunteer hours at my school.  Thank god my mom knew to keep her distance!  Teens don’t want to be monitored or tracked like some homing pigeon.  Trust them and they’ll respect you a whole more even when they get older.