One mom is encouraging parents to check their kids’ backpacks before playdates — even at age 9. She seemed to anticipate that her parenting tip would be pretty controversial. Maybe she thought this way because of how other parents around her reacted when she mentioned checking kids’ backpacks.
In a video shared on Instagram, the mom, who goes by “Lovey Edge” on the social media platform, explained that she checked her 9-year-old son’s backpack prior to a playdate. When she went to her son’s friend’s house to drop him off, she told the dad that he could check her kid’s backpack. The dad clearly didn’t get it. “He goes, ‘What are we checking for — contraband? They’re only 9!’” the mom recalled.
But even after that encounter, the mom firmly believes she is doing the right thing. “I just brought my 9-year-old to a playdate and he had a backpack for the first time and I said, ‘Son, I’m going to need to check your backpack,” she explained in the video. “He goes, ‘I’m just bringing some fun things over to my friend’s house … What are you checking for?’”
She offered a pretty simple explanation. “I said, ‘Just to make sure everything you’re leaving with is something that my friend would be OK with bringing in their home,'” the mom continued.
Though her child is only 9, she doesn’t think it’s too early to start checking his backpack. “I said, ‘Checking a backpack is a lot easier at 9 than 15 and if you start doing it now, when they’re 15, it’s not going to be such a big deal,'” the mom explained.
Though she didn’t share a ton of details about why she checks backpacks now, she said she “learned the hard way.”
In the same video, she also noted that she has four adult children. “Parents are probably wondering, if you haven’t been there yet, why would you check a backpack?” the mom acknowledged. “Trust me. I learned the hard way. Check every backpack that comes in and out of your home to protect your kids.”
In the comments, many other parents agreed with her take for a wide array of reasons. One parent wrote they “already do this with my 5 year old but its mostly to check to see if he brought home rocks or bugs or something.” Another parent commented, “My daughter tried to take 15 ladybugs to school one time. I looked like a lunatic in the school parking lot shaking it out.”
One mom shared that her daughter even tried to take a banana launcher to school to launch the fruit at her friends. The mom said she only noticed and decided to check her daughter’s backpack because “one day she was super protective over her backpack.”
Another person who works as a high school counselor urged parents to follow this mom’s advice. “Especially today so many ‘unassuming’ ‘mature’ ‘never gets in trouble’ ‘we trust them’ kids are carrying vapes, weed and anything else they can get their hands on,” the school counselor wrote.
Unfortunately, several parents also mentioned weapons. “My maybe 10 year old cousin packed his own luggage on the way back from a vacation in Europe – airport security found his grandfather’s antique gun. Check the backpack,” one mom advised.
