FYI (if you’re a teenage boy)

Dear boys,

I have some information that might interest you. Last night, as we sometimes do, our family sat around the dining-room table and looked through your social media photos.

We have teenage daughters, and so naturally there are quite a few pictures of you studly gentlemen to wade through. Wow – you sure took a bunch of selfies in your board shorts this summer! Your bedrooms are such a mess! Our eight-year-old son brought this to our attention, because with three older sisters who have rooms that smell like perfume and hairspray, he notices boyish details like that.

I think the girls notice other things. For one, it appears that you are not wearing a shirt.

I get it – you’re in your room, so you’re heading to bed, right? But then I can’t help but notice the hero-pose, the flexed biceps, and the tight, tight pecs. What’s up? None of these positions is one I naturally assume before sleep, this I know.

So, here’s the bit that I think is important for you to realize. If you are friends with a Wight girl on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, then you are friends with the whole Wight family.

Please understand this, also: we genuinely like keeping up with you. We enjoy seeing life through your unique and colourful lens – which is why your latest self-portrait is so extremely unfortunate.

These posts don’t reflect who you are! We think you are lovely and interesting, and usually very smart. But, we had to cringe and wonder what you were trying to do? Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying to say?

And now – total bummer – we have to block your posts. Because, the reason we have these (sometimes awkward) family conversations around the table is that we care about our daughters, just as we know your parents care about you.

I know your family would not be thrilled at the thought of my teenage girls seeing you only in your towel. Did you know that once a female sees you in a state of undress, she can’t ever un-see it? You don’t want the Wight girls to only think of you in this sexual way, do you?

Well, neither do we.

And so, in our house, there are no second chances, gentlemen. If you want to stay friendly with the Wight women, you’ll have to keep your clothes on, and your posts decent. If you try to post a sexy selfie, or an inappropriate YouTube video – even once – you will be booted off our on-line island.

I know that sounds harsh and old-school, but that just the way it is under this roof for a while. We hope to raise women with a strong moral compass, and women of integrity don’t linger over pictures of scantily clad high-school boys. (Though, let’s be honest – their mothers do … thank god for One Direction, am I right?!)

Every day I think super hard about the men (or women!) my girls will love. I hope they will be drawn to real hotties, the kind of men (or women) who will do them right no matter where they feel like doing it. I also pray that my daughters will be critical thinkers and pursue their own interests – not just hotties! – and act with intellect and discover their passions while they wait for their future husbands or wives.

Boys, it’s not too late! If you think you’ve made an on-line mistake (we all do – don’t fret – I’ve made some doozies!), RUN to your accounts and take down anything that makes it easy for your female friends (and their mothers) to imagine you naked in your bedroom.

Will you trust me? There are girls out there waiting and hoping for men of character and toned abs. Some young women are fighting the daily uphill battle to keep their minds pure, and their thoughts PG-13.

You are growing into a real stud, inside and out.

Act like him. Speak like him. Don’t post like him though because he is too hot and it is distracting, OMG.

I’m glad we’re friends.

Ms. Wight

(If you haven’t read this, then maybe this doesn’t make sense? Sorry.)