You think you’ve got this parenting thing under control, and then your teenager throws you a Snapchat-shaped curveball.
That’s exactly what happened to Eliza when her 15-year-old left for a school camp and casually handed over her phone with one job: “Keep my streaks alive, Mom.”
“It definitely speaks to the random things that moms end up doing that they never thought they would have to do,” Eliza told Kidspot.
“I don’t think that I expected that was going to be on one of my task lists.”
“World’s most silly thing to be important”
At first, she figured it would be easy. A quick snap here and there… but it didn’t take long for her to realize that was wishful thinking. The stakes in the world of teen Snapchat culture are incredibly high.
“There’s like a streaks tab… There’s like a little hourglass on the end of it. If the hourglass is there, then apparently it means that the streak is at risk of being lost,” she explained.
“It’s like the world’s most silly thing to be important.”
Eliza has become a streak lifeguard. Her job is to patrol the app, scanning for that dreaded hourglass emoji. Consider it the universal teen signal that a Snap streak is on life support.
“She told me that I need to check once in the morning and once in the afternoon,” Eliza said.
“I’ve just been doing that, and then I’ve just been keeping an eye on the streaks.”
She’s been documenting her experience on TikTok, sharing what she’s been sharing to what she’s dubbed “mom cam.”
“I actually stuffed up a little”
However, she’s learned how easy it is to slip up and post the wrong thing, in the wrong place.
“I actually stuffed up a little bit. I accidentally sent one of the photos to a group party chat,” she admitted.
The photo in question? A picture of Eliza’s positive flu test, complete with the caption “Uh oh, mum’s going down.”
“Her boyfriend messaged me and was like, ‘You need to delete that. It’s really bad for her.’ I was like, ‘Oh s—t,’” Eliza recounted.
“I know I’m probably going to kill her street cred now.”
Despite the slip-up, the feedback from her daughter’s friends has been reassuring.
“Some of them have said ‘you’re doing a great job’ and then some of them have just said ‘Queen Eliza,’” she said.
But perhaps the biggest praise Eliza has had with comments about her mum cam journey is the trust within the relationship.
“If I really wanted to, I could probably go through every single one of her messages or um social media things, but I haven’t. I think it’s important to make sure that you’re still respecting their privacy,” she said.
Eliza explained that while Snapchat has a reputation for being difficult to monitor, they made clear boundaries early on.
“We didn’t let her have an account until she was 13,” she said.
“A lot of her friends had it from when they were a lot younger than that.”
Even then, the rule was simple: only add people you actually know in real life. Though now using the app herself, Eliza admits, “that’s probably blown out a little bit.”
“She’s not overly rebellious… she’s pretty much a rule follower,” Eliza said.
“Honestly, I think it says more about her than it says about me.”
All the people her daughter is engaging with are friends of friends. She’s come across zero red flags or reasons to worry in her time snapchatting on her daughter’s behalf.
“They don’t really say much”
However, she has picked up some interesting findings about the teen universe.
“They don’t really say much in their snaps,” Eliza explained.
“It’s mostly just half their face, their shoulder, or whatever they happen to be looking at.”
Eliza contrasted it with her own experience using social media growing up.
“We cared a lot more about how we looked as far as like our physical appearance. These guys don’t have to be wearing makeup. They don’t, they don’t look aesthetic… They don’t have to be posing or making a big deal out of anything. It’s literally they’re just very candid and in the moment,” she reflected.
She’s learned plenty along the way and has tips for parents who might find themselves tasked with Snapchat babysitting duties.
“Definitely listen to the guidance that your child has given you as far as what’s acceptable and unacceptable,” she advises.
She also suggested not to “overthink it too much” and to “just have fun with it.”
“You don’t have to be in it or anything like that. Just random little fun things throughout the day, or if they’ve asked you just to completely send blank wall images,” she explained.
Turns out, parenting teens in 2025 means less “What’s for dinner?” and more “Don’t let the hourglass appear.”
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