Why You Should Not Spy on Your Kids and Trust Them Instead

I started spying on my daughter when she was in kindergarten. The elementary school where she attended was
just across the highway from where we lived. All I had to do was go out in my yard and see the kids out playing. I guess I got interested in watching her because I wanted to live my life through her. She was everything I was not
when I was younger. She is pretty, outgoing, smart, a dancer, a gymnast and a cheerleader.

When she went to middle school I got interested in looking in her room for her journals or diaries. She got real mad at me if she discovered that I read her diaries. She tried to hide them.

In high school I would want to listen in on her phone conversations with her boyfriends. When she was on the computer I tried to look over her shoulder to see who she was talking to or what she said to the guys. She would try to hide the screen from me. She knew there were some that I did not approve of. It hurt me so much if she went to her bedroom and slammed the door in my face or said things like she hated me! Looking back now I
realize I went too far with it. She threatened to leave home at different times. I was terrified she would.

She didn't leave me in elementary school, middle school, or even high school, but now she is in college. She is about 3-4 hours away. That might not sound too far away, but to me it is. I love her so much that it hurts ever time I have to say goodbye. I don't get to see her that often. I realized that I had to change, and let her have her own life, and make it on her own. I tried to let her go, and now our relationship is a whole lot better. The moral to my story is you should trust your teenagers more as long as you know that they are smart enough to know right from wrong. I also raised both of my kids in church and they are big Christians. If you have a teenager you should not spy on them or you may loose them forever and they are too important.