re: OT dads, how do you deal with bullying?

The whole "I'm not letting MY kid be on social media" stance by parens with kids under the age of 10, is the same thing as expectant parents emphatically stating "The baby will NEVER sleep in the bed with me and I'm NOT giving him a pacifier".

It's real easy to state absolutes in the abstract.

Social media is not some fad, it is now a permanent part of communication and socialization, like it or not.

My teenagers teachers use Twitter to make announcements, the football coaches use it to make announcements to the team, the principal uses it for parent reminders. Each class has a Twitter and Instagram to plan events and share pictures. The school yearbook asks parents to send pics from school events to their accounts to put in the yearbook.

I could go on and on.

Any of you been on a job interview lately for a sales, marketing, or PR position?

If you aren't "social media fluent", you aren't getting that job.

Taking the hard line stance of "NO SOCIAL MEDIA" will make your kids get one secretly and then you have no control over it.

I made sensible rules for my kids' accounts - they have to have them private so only friends can see what they post, I have to be their "friend" or follower (makes them more circumspect about they post because they know I will see it, I have to know their password and they know I spot check their activity - if they change the password, they lose the account, and I explained to them about how "delete" doesn't mean something is gone.

Once my oldest turned 15, I allowed him to have his own password.

It's pretty much a way of life now but like anything you have to be aware and be alert.