eHarmony for kids?

Ok, so my son brings home this piece of paper - and on it are his most compatible matches for friends.

Alrighty then...

Yeah - they had the kids answer these questionnaires and then they matched them up with the most compatible friends.

They also had least compatible matches on there - but, only three of those.

Sadly, most of the people that were listed he doesn't even know. The one that he does know and kind of thinks of as a friend is a sweet girl named, Annie - who happens to be listed on his least compatible matches. LOL!

Ok, I've just gone and perused the website some more, and I am a bit disappointed.

When he first brought it home, I was kind of taken aback, but, then as he explained it to me - about it being just about connecting 'friends' - I thought it was kind of cute.

But now as I look over the website some more, I am seeing that their 'regular program', as they put it, is to make match-ups.

My son is in the seventh grade, and I know at that age, that would not be a good thing - could prove to be quite embarassing. But looking back at my own high school career, I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have wanted that even then.

They say on their website, 'we know some people won't want to do the regular program because they already have a boyfriend or girlfriend'.

Quite a few possible scenarios for uncomfortable feelings there, don't you think?

What if you are a not-so-popular kid and it matches you up with 'Mr. Football' and people laugh hysterically about it?

What if you are a not-so-popular kid who doesn't have a boyfriend/girlfriend, and you opt to not do the 'regular program'? And then some smarty pants kid asks you, in front of a crowd - "You don't have a girlfriend, why didn't you do it?"

I mean, there are many ways to look at this that could cause a kid to have hurt feelings or completely mortified feelings, even.

I have to say that I am so not thrilled with this program. I am not going to link to them and give them a link, but, if you want to check it out it's called Computer-Fun.

Some things these days are so accepted for their cute factor, without ever taking into account how it could really affect kids in a negative way.

And this is for a fundraiser, too. Of course, a lot of the fundraisers are the 'hurt feelings generators' - the carnations on Fridays, the Valentine's, etc...

If you haven't guessed it already, I come from the not-so-popular crowd - I wonder if the hurt feelings are similar in the popular crowd sometimes - or even often?