> I don't think my parents take my time spent on RinkChat very seriously.
>
> Many times they have made comments about my "being addicted" to RinkChat.
>
> I just wish I could make them understand that the people I meet here are really my friends.
>
> Who said you can't make a friend over the internet?
>
> Give me one good reason an internet friend is any less valid than a friend made in real life.
>
> Sun"annoyed"dragyn.

It's taken a while for my parents and I to strike the proper balance with RinkWorks. At the end of my junior year, I was using the Internet to the exclusion of doing my schoolwork, which cause a LOT of problems. My parents told me I couldn't use the Internet, a rule I mostly follwed until school ended.

This past year, they've come to accept the fact that I do have friendships with people I've only met online. They've let me meet Marvin and flyingcats, they considered letting me go to RinkUnion until I screwed that up myself, Issachar and Jacqueline are staying with us on their way up to the RinkUnion (speaking of which... Iss, I haven't heard back from you, have you checked your email recently?)

The fact that they have come to accept my participation in RinkWorks is helped by the fact that I do have many close in-person friendships. I never hesitate to turn off the computer when I have somewhere to physically go. I talk to my parents about my "Internet friends".

It might just take your parents a while to accept the fact that you're from a different generation than they are; that not everyone online is a crazed Internet psycho; that you really do value your online friendships as much as your real life ones.

Ki"good luck!"ki