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personal thoughts with other members. However, if we so desire, we can join chat rooms or forum boards and speak anonymously with others who have similar experiences. By doing so, we no longer feel alone. We feel validated and, once again, part of a larger community.

It is exciting to note that so many people are finally having fun with this new medium, (which includes both the Internet and text phones). Parents are sending messages to their child to remind them to pull frozen meat from the freezer. Children are checking in with their parents at work, asking for permission to come home late from school. BFF's are communicating with one another with lightning-quick fingers.

Sometimes, when I am at one computer and my children are at another, I contact them through instant messaging. It is amazing what they will say to me in that format that they would not have said to my face. They will actually tease and heckle me. I love these conversations and I understand that their reluctance to cross these boundaries in person is an indication that they respect the roles we play in our home life. But, once in a while, it is "just too much fun," to see a different side of one another. Tensions are dispelled. Laughter returns.

I must admit that the Internet has also made it possible for me to satiate my curiosity. I have researched everything from the ingredients in baby formula to the scientific principles behind kinetics. It is compelling to know that the answer to a question that arises during a lunch conversation is available at the touch of a button. My children are the same. When younger, my son loved and explored dinosaurs. When he was older, he wanted to know about the Civil War. He researches the artists he likes and knows far more about them than I knew about my idols. He watches the progress of movies he is waiting to see, anxiously previewing the trailers and discussing plot possibilities with his on-line companions.

Obviously, there are apparent dangers on the Internet. My son and I were not part of the cyber-world until he was ten years old. The first chat room he joined made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I was fortunate enough to be close by while he explored, because we had only one computer. At first, I believed him too young have the "stranger danger" conversation, but I soon conceded I could not dismiss its inevitability. I have always been grateful I did. Sure enough, before long he was asked to give out more information than would have been

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