What To Do?

  My daughter received her schedule for high school last week. She is overly pleased with the classes, however we may have an issue. A girl that she was once friends with shares her same lunch period. This girl is a pretty misguided child. She smokes pot and dates older boys. She is not the type of friend that we want my daughter associating with and so she discontinued contact last year. My daughter is worried that if she ignores this girl, that she may get beat up by the girls friends, who are all older high schoolers. She came to me and wants her lunch period switched, this way we are cutting the line of communication and socialization. This is where I am torn. On one hand, I want to do anything I can to make sure my daughter is comfortable is school, but at the same time I wonder if switching the lunch period will give my daughter the easy way out and she won't learn to deal with situations on her own.

My Daughter and My summer tradition

 So this summer while my kids were off from school, my daughter and I have been spending a great deal of time together. In the past, when I would attempt to spend more quality time or to take a few steps deeper into her world, we always ended up watching television. Her shows, as she puts it, consisted of Degrassi and Gilmore Girls a few years ago, two shows that I feel guilty saying that I enjoyed and caught myself watching when my daughter wasn't around! This summer was no different. We sat in front of the television on a tuesday evening and began watching Pretty Little Liars. While this show was far different from the others with it's mysterious theme, I quickly began noticing how the writers developed the stories based on cyber bullying and the paths of these 5 girls, one of which is deceased due to crossing the wrong person, and really focusing on how the theme is showing the kids of today, my daughter and her peers, how awful internet bullying is and that the repercussions are real. I began watching the show with her on a whim, just a guy trying to be a better dad, and ended up making a tradition. Now my daughter always comes down stairs on tuesday mornings, and she says "good morning Daddy! Do you know what today is?" The building of a positive tradition with my daughter is a great thing, even if we never really find out who "A" is!

 I found a pretty good site which speaks about Pretty Little Liars in depth and focuses primarily on the cyber bullying aspect of the show.

http://thetoughissues.com/2012/03/20/304/