Bad Influence?

I realize that it’s hard to believe but there was once a time when some parents weren’t overly thrilled about their children hanging around with me. In some cases it was through no fault of my own. I had several friends that liked to use me as an excuse anytime they were late for curfew or had gotten themselves in some kind of trouble. I won’t say that it was never my fault that they were late or that I never was the cause of their trouble, just not as much as they led on.

 I was an easy scapegoat. My hair was long, I smoked cigarettes and wore a silver dagger hanging from my pierced ear. I got a badass tattoo of Yosemite Sam on my arm.  A town cop once told my preppy dressed best friend that he was going to regret hanging around with me.

The truth was that I got good grades, spent almost all of my after school time working and never really got into any kind of trouble at all. I drank more than I should have and drove a bit too fast but never at the same time. It was all kind of a joke until the night I had to sit down with a girl’s father and explain to him why he should allow his daughter to continue to see me. I wasn’t laughing then.

I was a lot older then than my daughter is now but for some  reason she seems to be running into the same problems. I’ve already talked about the text messages she received from a friend’s parent but there have been other situations lately where other parents have decided that their little precious would be better off not associating with mine. In at least one of these cases it appears that the other child was throwing mine under the bus to get herself out of trouble.

Is she doing herself any favors by dressing like this?

Probably not.

Is anyone better off by not being her friend? Absolutely not.

I understand that all parents see their children through rose colored glasses and I’ve certainly been accused in the past of failing to recognize that mine behaves differently when I’m not around and isn’t without her flaws. I get it.

I also know that one of those flaws is that she keeps her circle small and that if you’re allowed inside she is fiercely loyal and loving. When she is let down by one of those people she takes it hard. She’s not perfect and I’m sure that even at this age there is a lot about her life that I don’t know but I’m pretty sure that anybody would be lucky to have her call them her friend. They are at an age where it can’t be minimized how important that is, how important having those people is.

This bad influence is somebody that you should feel fortunate if she calls your kid her friend.

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Previously Published on thirstydaddy.com and is republished on Medium.

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Photo credit: iStock

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