I've passed quite a few parenting milestones, from the first lost tooth to the first day of first grade, and yesterday was yet another Major Mom Moment.

I was not expecting it to affect me, but while creating an e-mail account for my 7-year-old son, I almost teared up. Either I was having a particularly hormonal day or there was something more to this task.

Part of my emotional reaction came from the fact that I know I'm losing control of his life, more and more every day. It's not like a Gmail account is the gateway to Internet porn, but at the same time, he's on his way to accessing the daunting, cluttered, uncensored cyber world. As the person who sometimes still pre-watches his movie to make sure it's age appropriate, this is difficult for me to accept.

Also, my oldest son was adopted from Guatemala, and he wants e-mail to communicate with his biological brother who is just a year older and lives with his adoptive family in Virginia. I agree that e-mail is a great way for the two brothers -- who have not seen each other since they were babies -- to get to know each other.

I am thrilled about this connection, but know that my son has a lot to understand about his past, and communicating with his older brother might only speed up the process. There are going to be so many questions soon, and I won't have very many answers.

But I'm not going to think about that right now. Instead, I'm going to send my son his first e-mail with lots of easy-to-read words in it like "I," "love" and "you."