Well, it looks like more racy photos of Miley Cyrus have shown up on the web. Supposedly stolen from her cell phone, they show a then 14 year old Miley in the shower in a wet T-shirt and another with her shirt rolled up and tucked under her bra, exposing her mid-section, and blowing a kiss while taking a picture of herself.  As the parent of a 14 year old daughter, I pay some attention to these things and often find myself shaking my head. My daughter used to be a big Hannah Montana fan (of course, she will no longer admit to that!) so I find it sad to see this young lady, whom my daughter really liked, start to spiral out of control.

I know many parents will say “It’s just some innocent photos. She isn’t NAKED or anything. Besides, they were taken with her own phone and were not intended for public consumption”. I suppose all that is true, but I often wonder where her parents are while all this is taking place. In recent months, photos surfaced of Miley sprawled across the lap of a teenage boy in what appeared to be a bed and what I would call a very provocative position. I am sorry, but we don’t even allow boys in our HOUSE, let alone in a bed with our daughter. I would think, with a child making the kind of money Miley makes, her parents would be even MORE protective! Certainly the thought of other kids using their daughter for her fame and fortune has crossed their minds. I just feel these activities are all taking place in a home that is unsupervised.

We allow our daughter to go to the pool with her friends, be involved in youth group at church and to have girls spend the night so we aren’t totally overprotective. But I do go through my daughters phone when she has it charging. I make sure there isn’t inappropriate texting or photos on there. We do not allow her to go to chat rooms or to have a MySpace page and the computer stays in the office where we can all walk in at anytime. If I feel she is listening to inappropriate music (”Sexy Can I” was the latest), I learn the lyrics and sing it with her until she is so mortified she can’t bear to listen to it anymore. There is something inherently wrong with hearing your MOM sing about “take it to the front, take it to the back” and working a stripper pole that takes all the fun out of those types of songs. I am not naive enough to think she has totally knocked it off but I can tell you this, I haven’t heard that song played in my home since.

Parenting is hard work. You aren’t put on this earth to be your daughter or son’s friend. It is something you have to work at everyday. You have to have the backbone to say NO and not back down or give in. You have to set clear boundaries and stick with them. You need to be consistent. It seems to me all this is lacking in the Cyrus household.

–Lisa