I have been on Facebook for about 5 years. I am fairly leery of who I accept as friends on my personal Facebook page. It’s a little different on my fan page because that is for my blog, so I welcome anyone who wants to follow, to follow.
But, I always keep an eye out to see if any of my friends, fellow school moms or co-workers are following, just so I am aware of that, because then your online life and your real life start to overlap and sometimes that may not be a good thing.
I’ve noticed lately that some of my friends, who have teenagers, have friended or allowed their teen’s friends to friend them and that confuses me. I am not at a point where that is an issue yet.
My girls are too young to be involved in social media, as are their friends. But I do have teenage nieces and nephews who are on Facebook and they have friended me. I forget that sometimes. That’s the problem.
I find it peculiar and not a very good idea to friend your teen’s friends unless you intend to be very aware about every single thing you post on Facebook. If you are not careful, you will have your teen’s friends seeing you as a “friend†and not an adult.
Our children know us as we present ourselves to them. They might not know that mommy used to drink at frat parties or once threw up in the backseat of her best friend’s Camaro. This could all come to light, especially since Facebook is where everyone relives the past to infinity and beyond.
As if it’s not bad enough that your child becomes armed with this info and uses it as a weapon against you, now you have their friends who caught a conversation on Facebook between you and your high school sweetheart referring to your prom in 1990.
Then all bets are off because if you did it, so can your kid, right? WRONG!
I think it’s a horrible idea for parents to friend their kid’s friends. It’s probably fine to friend your own child. It’s actually a good way to know what they are up to and in to, but be sure that if you do, you are careful about what you say on Facebook.
You have to always remember that your kid’s are watching, listening and learning things about you that maybe you didn’t intend for them to ever know.
I’m not saying that we keep things from our kids, but there are things that our kids don’t need to know about us. We have to maintain the role as the parent; someone to look up to. We can’t suddenly become just another friend to our children or their friends, or we do we run the risk of losing their respect and our position of authority.
Would you ever be friends with your teen’s friends on Facebook? Why or why not?
Photo Source: Marco Pako
