> implicitly dismissing the possibility that we simply disagree on the severity of the transgression I do think we disagree, and very fundamentally. I wouldn’t

> implicitly dismissing the possibility that we simply disagree on the severity of the transgression I do think we disagree, and very fundamentally. I wouldn’t personally characterize this even as a “transgression”, much less abuse. Depending on the kid’s age, I’d even call it responsible parenting! Nevertheless, I doubt you believe monitoring your children’s texts is truly adjacent to burning them with cigarettes, molesting them, humiliating and calling them names, and so on. This is what “abuse” used to mean. My pet theory is that this escalation in language has been part of a social feedback loop, where people have become more sensitized and less able to cope with relatively minor nuisances.