I think that as long as there is trust and honesty in a parent-child relationship, I see no reason to snoop. HOWEVER, once that trust/honesty has been violated, it's every person for themself.

Example: My very best friend has a 17 year old daught she THOUGHT she could trust. Last weekend, her daughter LIED to her and said she had to be at work at noon, when in face, she was due at work at 4 p.m. She took her Mom's car (she's only had her license for 3 months and was involved in an accident 3 weeks after getting it) and was driving on the highway (my friend only allowed her to drive on the highway when she was present, till she got more driving experience under her belt) on the way to their beach house. Her daughter lost control of the car, went down an embankment, flipping the car over. Fortunately, she was wearing her seatbelt and walked away from the crash.

Since her daughter had lied to her (and, she found out HAD been lying to her for sometime), she felt she had every right to go through her daughter's purse. Well, she found not only a lighter and cigarettes (her daughter SWORE she was not smoking), she also found a bag of marijuana and drug paraphernalia! This girl is SO lucky that the investigating Trooper didn't find the drugs instead of her mother!! She has no clue as to how lucky she really is!!

My friend is SO angry right now because of all the lies. She has cancelled her daughter's car insurance and tore up her license.

There is a lesson to be learned from all this. Don't give your parents a REASON to snoop!!