I keep track of my kids sometimes with social media. I have to

Kris Jenner, the matriarch who has turned family into an empire, once spoke with striking candor: “I keep track of my kids sometimes with social media. I have to check TMZ every morning to see what’s going on, and then at night, I go to bed with Snapchat.” Though her words are clothed in humor, they reveal something timeless and deeply human: the yearning of a parent to remain close to their children, even when life and fame place them in distant orbits. It is not the gossip site or the glowing screen that matters here, but the vigilance of a mother’s heart, always seeking, always watching, always tethered by invisible cords of care.

The ancients, too, spoke of such bonds. In Homer’s Iliad, Thetis, mother of Achilles, knows the fate awaiting her son and watches over him with grief-stricken devotion. She cannot prevent his choices, but she remains near, intervening when she can, listening for whispers of his destiny. Kris Jenner, in the modern age, takes up the same posture: though her children walk in the glare of cameras and tabloids, she keeps vigil through social media, watching for signs, guarding through knowledge what she cannot guard in body.

Her words also capture the transformation of parenthood in the age of technology. Where once mothers listened for footsteps on the stairs or letters in the post, now they scan feeds and stories on glowing screens. The medium changes, but the devotion does not. Morning begins not with silence but with a search, a quest to know if all is well. And night does not end with peace until she has scrolled through the shadows of the digital world, as if checking the doors before sleep. This ritual is not obsession, but fidelity, born of love.

History gives us parallels. Consider Queen Victoria, who after her children married into courts across Europe, demanded a constant stream of letters, updates, and reports. Her desk overflowed with correspondence because her heart could not rest without knowing her children’s condition. Kris Jenner’s use of TMZ and Snapchat is but the modern echo of this same hunger — a mother’s need to know, even when her children have lives too vast, too complex, or too distant for her to fully control.

Yet her confession also carries a subtle tension. To rely on social media and tabloids for knowledge is to stand at the edge of truth and illusion, for such sources mix reality with rumor. This reveals a deeper truth about parenting in the modern age: that love sometimes seeks certainty in places where certainty cannot be found. But even here, the act itself is sacred — for the search, though imperfect, is born of devotion. It is a mother’s way of saying, “Though the world is vast and noisy, I will not lose sight of you.”

The lesson for us is this: the tools may change, but the calling of love remains the same. Whether through letters, newspapers, or Snapchat, parents must find ways to remain connected, to keep watch, to let their children know they are never forgotten. For children, the lesson is also clear: beneath the sometimes-watchful eye lies not control, but care — a love that cannot rest until it has touched the lives of those it holds most dear.

So remember, O children of tomorrow, Kris Jenner’s playful yet profound words: “I keep track of my kids sometimes with social media.” In them we see the eternal devotion of parenthood dressed in the garments of the modern age. Let us not dismiss it as trivial, but honor it as a reminder that love adapts, love endures, and love finds its way — from the whispers of Homeric gods to the glowing screens that accompany our mornings and nights. For though the world changes, the mother’s heart remains forever the same.