From my mailbox:
Hi Lenore,
Fadi Adawi, former Deputy County Sheriff in California’s Central Valley, took his career from fighting crime on the streets to developing one of the world’s largest websites, InstantCheckmate.com, which helps people be proactive about their safety. As a former law enforcement officer, Fadi learned that looks can be deceiving—criminals often look just like you and me.
Fadi recommends using Instant Checkmate to screen the parents of your children’s friends to know who is supervising their play date…[and] to investigate your college daughter’s new boyfriend to be sure he doesn’t have a criminal record, and much more….
“Instant Checkmate is a great resource to utilize for background checks in order to protect yourself and people you care for—you’d be shocked at what you might find,” said Adawi.
Have you heard the term “mission creep”? It’s when a mission keeps getting bigger and bigger — and hence, less focused on its original intent, more focused on justifying its expansion. Checkmate sounds like it was invented to check one’s mate. But seeing the large and lucrative market of parents out there, it looks like now it’s trying to make it seem normal to background check pretty much anyone and everyone your child encounters.
This is like the private version of the NSA. Maybe you start out looking for one thing, but pretty soon you are snooping on everyone everywhere. Once we have the means of spying on everyone, it’s hard to resist the urge not to. Or at least it’s harder when we’re being told, “Nothing is as it seems. Become all-knowing. Only THEN can you keep your loved ones (or country) safe.”
Know all, otherwise your children are in danger.
That’s one of the many mantras of modern parenting driving us crazy with fear, guilty and worry. It demands all our time. And it happily drains all our dollars. – L
Your child wants a playdate with mine? I just have a few questions…and a rubber hose.
