<p>My daughter sent me this link. She thought it was funny. Do you think she is trying to tell me something?</p>
<p>[“Instant</a> Messaging With Mom” by Dan Gurewitch on CollegeHumor](<a href=“Dropout - Independent, ad-free, uncensored comedy | Dropout”>Dropout - Independent, ad-free, uncensored comedy | Dropout)</p>
<p>That was very cute. Of course, I’m not like that at all. Love, Mom (oops – force of habit).</p>
<p>When I was in college, my mom not only added me to her buddy list, but all of my friends whose screen names she could get her hands on as well… that way if my away message didn’t say what I was doing maybe one of my friends did. She would always read my away messages and go crazy. I don’t know how many times she signed online at 7 AM and saw i was only “Idle” for 3 hours and started iming me asking me what I was doing till 4 am, haha! As if I could respond, since it was 7 am and I was sleeping :)</p>
<p>Once I graduated she stopped using IM, but now my sister is in college and she has gotten back on it again. I had to go through her buddy list and take out all of my friends, and now she’s started adding my sisters friends.</p>
<p>It’s kind of funny now that I think about it.</p>
<p>My roommate’s mom added her on AIM last year. After she had to explain that of course she wasn’t drinking at the party–she just went to see her friends! she started being very careful with her away messages. I think Mom is now on the block list, though (meaning that my friend always appears offline to her). </p>
<p>That was cute. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>I used to just put a quote from a song or a saying in my away message so that it had absolutely no bearing as to what I was doing. </p>
<p>Now I just use the standard I am away from my computer… even when I’m not.</p>
<p>I had a couple of my daughter’s friends on my buddy list - my daughter gave them to me when I needed to contact her friends to ask them about housesitting/dog sitting for us. So they stayed up, and every now and then, one of them will IM me out of the blue. It’s so cute.</p>
<p>My daughter has put up away messages just to tease me, such as “Off to hang with Tyler and his bong… j/k Mom!”</p>
<p>D2 usually puts up quotes or lyrics from a song. After a while I complained because her away messages never told me what she was doing, and she blew me off (completely expected). A few weeks later, all of a sudden I noticed she was leaving away messages that said what she was doing and I told her thank you, then asked her why she changed her mind. She said D1 had called her and told her to put up informative away messages so she could know what her sister was up to. </p>
<p>I guess it’s the college experience bonding they were going for.</p>
<p>Right now, D2’s away message is: What if, just this once, life came down on the side of the dirty mistresses? D1’s message is: exhausted</p>
<p>D1’s message: nesting
huh? lol</p>
<p>My younger son used to accuse me of stalking him when I would check my AIM buddies to see if he was online. We did use IM’s occasionally until his AIM messed up. Now I don’t know when he is home anymore! But at least he calls more frequently now that he is a junior.</p>
<p>I do IM my son in Japan occasionally. His IM makes a yowling cat sound, so I always know when he goes online. He says he would change the sounds, but he doesn’t know how. I know how, but I’m not telling!</p>
<p>Thank you for posting that funny link. I’m still laughing, so it’s obvious that I’m overidentifying!</p>
<p>I can’t read the original link right now because my company won’t let me on the site!<br>
However, I am a big AIM user and have my kids and many of their friends on it, as well as a few of my adult friends. I check Away messages all the time and communicate with my kids and friends via Away messages. I don’t have AIM at work (fortunately), except on my Blackberry.<br>
I am a Stalker.</p>
<p>Momof WildChild,
Welcome to the stalkers club! I do like having my kids on AIM. It is always reassuring when I see one of them come online after I knew he was gone on a trip or something. Especially with the one in Japan who doesn’t keep in touch that well. It just reassures me that he is still alive and well. :)</p>
<p>There are 4 of us with 4 computers in this house. Our IM use has gotten so bad when we are all at home that we tend to IM each other in the house! I guess we have to get a life.</p>
<p>kitty56- at least you are communicating, and that is a good thing! I text message my Ds, even when they are in their rooms at home. I know I will get a response that way, which often doesn’t happen when I yell down the hallway to their closed door and their ipod-covered ears!</p>
<p>I don’t think I would ever add my mom on any kind of online communications thing - Facebook, IM, you name it.</p>
<p>My friends parents though, are a different story. Not the least because they seem to find my party stories entertaining, unlike my mother who would probably freak out.</p>
<p>I have two friends on IM- both are my Daughters</p>
<p>i sign on, and if she is on, we chat for a few minutes, if sho wants, or not</p>
<p>Right now we are talking about Thanksgiving arangments</p>
<p>My kids get mad when I IM them from the den and they are in their rooms. We also have 4 people and 4 laptops and have been known to IM each other while sitting 2 feet apart! It really is sad we are so attached to our computers.</p>
<p>I also am a stalker. The first thing I do is read my daughter’s away message; my son no longer leaves away messages. According to my son, someone could follow my daughter as her away message sometimes leaves nothing to the imagination. For example-“showering, getting ready for party at ______.” Or-“Class, class, lunch, class, Target, then the library.” At least I know where to find her!</p>
<p>My son’s away message never says anything but “I’m not here”. I don’t even know what mine says - whatever the default is.</p>
<p>guilty of also IMing a family member from within the same house!</p>
<p>When D1 was a freshman, the last thing I did at night and the first thing in the morning was to check her away message. It gave me comfort, just that little peek each day. They were usually hysterically funny, as is she - in a quiet intelligent way. I particularly enjoyed the ones that were snippets of on line conversations she had with friends that were sooooo funny. (even when one oft-used one was part of a conv. she and I had. Haha. I saved some of the funniest ones, like “how did campus safety get my cell number?”
As she’s progresses thru soph, jr and now 1/2 of senior year (wait, really?!?)-they have become less frequent, she’s so busy that the same one will stay up for days at a time. 
When D2 left for college I thought for sure I was in for more of the same…but she hardly ever has an away msg - boo. I think the younger kids also really rely mainly on facebook, idk. Maybe she is just never in her room. She did have over 3,000 text messages last month, tho. Wow, 2 very different kids! But they both make me smile.
So, yes, I am an IM stalker! I love having it, such a great communication tool. As for their friends on my list? They’d KILL me!</p>
<p>I’m expressly forbidden to IM or text either kid. It’s okay with me; they want their own worlds. D, however, talks to me on phone. Come to think of it, S does to.</p>
<p>So who IM’s me? H, when he’s bored. He types with two fingers so it takes a really long time for him to answer me. I usually post three times to his once, but it keeps me from being bored waiting.</p>