I’ve decided not to read my children’s emails, unless I have a reason to be concerned. Sometimes, invading the privacy of kids can have parents squirming.

Andy and a circle of his friends suddenly want to do nothing but e-mail each other. It’s like they have a developmental urge to text, but have no cell phones. (They’ve come close to IM-ing, but it seems that whenever one friend figures out how to do it, the other forgets…so, frustrated with each other, they say, “Oh, let’s just email.”) A typical email dialogue goes like this:

Andy: That’s so funny.

Friend: What?

Andy: What you said before.

Friend: Yeah.

Andy: Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Keep in mind that, done with email, this meaningful…