Do Parents Need a Guide to Teen Text Speak?

Cingular Wireless thinks parents need to know how to text-message their kids, so it's put together a primer on how to speak teen text language via family cell phones. You can find Cingular's TXT2CONNECT - A Parent's Text Tutorial here (PDF).

Cingular has signed on clinical psychologist and parenting book author Ruth Peters, who tells parents that kids want to communicate—on their terms. By appropriately using cell phone options and text messaging, parents can connect with their kids in more meaningful ways. And, she says, you're more likely to get a response from your teen if you text her. (Hmm. Seems to me the ground rules of having a cell phone should start with answering a call or text message from the parent who is probably paying for the phone.)

I'm all for texting teens to keep in touch in a quick, easy way, so you know where they are and when to pick them up, and they know they can reach you. But if you're doing it to be cool or to be part of their circle, think again. Teens have always needed a language all their own to communicate with peers and set them apart from their parents' generation. Texting is this teen generation's cryptic language. If we presume to be a part of the club, we run the risk of being seriously goofy, not quite the cool moms we envision ourselves to be.

As Dorothy G. Singer, a Yale University psychology professor and author, says in this New York Times story on the subject: To think that you are a peer is a mistake. They want to look up to you.

So by all means, text your kids when you need to reach them. But don't act like a teen. I don't think I could pull it off if I tried. You won't catch me texting "DBL84DNR" to make sure my kids are home for dinner on time. But I just may text "ILY" to let them know I do without embarrassing them in front of their friends.

Parents: Does text messaging keep you and your teens in better touch? And do you need a primer on how to do it?