Putting the computer belonging to our 16-year-old son into his bedroom

Chicago Tribune | Eric Zorn: "Over the Labor Day weekend, I began the attempt to undo the effects my worst parenting decision of the last year: Putting the computer belonging to our 16-year-old son into his bedroom. He hadn't been agitating for change--he's not an agitator-- but back in January I implemented my grand plan to reconfigure the work stations in our house as we began a conversion to Macintosh computers. At the time he was sharing a desk and computer with his mother in an open area of the house where I also have a desk and the twins have a little projects table. But I reasoned that, as a high-school sophomore, he needed and deserved his own, private, dedicated study area. And I also reasoned that, in a few more lightning-fast rotations of the calendar he'll be in his own college dorm room, so it was a good time for him to start developing computer self-discipline -- that critical ability to tear himself away from the comprehensive temptations of the online world and get down to work. I reasoned wrong."