Awkward Situation

[snake_lady]

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Our daughter's teacher has requested that he and I be friends on FaceBook. This is very awkward for me; I have only five very good friends on FaceBook, and I don't particularly want our daughter's teacher accessing our friend and family pictures.

I only know him from saying hello at the school and from the usual parent/teacher meetings. I know some people add everyone they know to their account...

Do I add him anyway (daughter has 5 1/2 more months of school with him - and then what, do I take him off as a friend?), or do I explain this to him, or do I just ignore it and hope he forgets or isn't insulted?

What do you think?

I didn't read through everyone else's responses but, if it were me I would do 1 of 2 things:

just ignore it.... and if he brings it up (in conversation, sends u a msg, etc) then you could always put him on limited profile if you want to add him...then he would only see what you want him to see.

 

[zoeysmom]

I just thought of this: Did you communicate to the teacher via email in the past? The is the option to let Facebook search your email contacts and invite them as friends on Facebook. That could be what happened as well.

Either way, it won't outrightly tell him that you've refused his request. You just won't show up as a friend for him. Half the time I can't remember who I requested to be friends. So, he quite likely won't even notice. And if he does and brings it up, well, I guess you can cross that bridge when you get there....but, I would say if he does bring it up, he has serious professionalism issues!

 

[pami]

If he has your email, Facebook will connect your email address to your Facebook account and very possibly ask him if he wants to add these people from his email account in a group.

My nephews teacher sends me weekly updates, so her name came up on m Facebook email request.

 

[swampwitch]

Originally Posted by zoeysmom

I just thought of this: Did you communicate to the teacher via email in the past? The is the option to let Facebook search your email contacts and invite them as friends on Facebook. That could be what happened as well.

Either way, it won't outrightly tell him that you've refused his request. You just won't show up as a friend for him. Half the time I can't remember who I requested to be friends. So, he quite likely won't even notice. And if he does and brings it up, well, I guess you can cross that bridge when you get there....but, I would say if he does bring it up, he has serious professionalism issues!

Originally Posted by Pami

If he has your email, Facebook will connect your email address to your Facebook account and very possibly ask him if he wants to add these people from his email account in a group.

My nephews teacher sends me weekly updates, so her name came up on m Facebook email request.

We have communicated by email, maybe that's what happened!

I can't lie to him... I am a bad liar and no doubt my daughter will ask why I'm lying and why we tell her she can't!

Thank you everyone for the suggestions, I think I'm going to ignore it.

 

[marie-p]

In my experience, a lot of people on facebook are 'friend collectors' and add anyone they possibly can to their friend list.

He probably sent a request to everyone he had ever emailed and wont notice that you ignore his request.

 

[libby74]

In my experience, a lot of people on facebook are 'friend collectors' and add anyone they possibly can to their friend list.

Exactly. I looked at DD's page the other day and she has over 500 friends! One boy in particular that she had asked if she could be on his friends list emailed her saying, "Do I know you?" When she told him they'd gone to the same high school (over 1800 students) he told her, "Just because we went to the same school doesn't mean I know you." I believe DD was stunned.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there. While my initial thought would be to ignore the teacher's request, I suppose that if he brought up the subject again I would tell him you only had close personal friends/family members on your list.