What happens when our kids find our Facebook profiles?

When I was a little younger, probably 16, I went to Thanksgiving at one of my cousins' houses.  My dad had 6 brothers, so we had a lot of cousins there and stories were constantly told but at this even there were props.  Someone had uncovered a box from grandma's house that had artifacts from my uncles' schooling, but those didn't interest me.  I wanted to know about my own father and how he had done in school.

Looking back on my schooling, I could have done plenty more.  I never really took my education too seriously, always falling back on the comfort of how much praise I received for even the most mundane achievements.  I knew in the back of my head I could scrape by and eventually I would be able to work hard enough to be comfortable in life.  Unfortunately for all those people who want to heap coals on the heads of me and those in my generation, it seems like all those assumptions I held were correct.  The other people responsible for my perception of life?  My parents.  Are they to be blamed for my apathy toward school, perhaps yes, and they certainly thought so.

When I went to grab my father's report cards and find out just how great a student he was - clearly he must have been given that he had a decent job at this point and our family was doing fine - I was told I couldn't see them "until I graduated from college".  I was only allowed to see his senior picture, which as it turns out was probably as or more identical to mine as our grades. 

From that point I can remember trying to notice what my dad does and become more aware of my own tendencies.  It shouldn't come as any surprise that we are very similar.  It's nice now, I'm staring down graduation and cross country relocation and starting a family and the more I know about myself the better.

But, was hiding his bad grades from me at that age the right move by my father?  He has made very few mistakes in rearing his children from my perspective so I will argue yes, which begs the question:  What happens when our kids find out Facebook profiles?

It's happening soon.  If you are anywhere near my age, and on the same prescribed path of directives, you may have kids in 6 years or less, or maybe you already do.  Plenty has been said on the issue of whether to "friend" your aunts/grandparents/teachers/parents, but what about your kids.  I'm not talking about today.  Facebook became really popular only around 2006, most adults probably didn't start posting on a regular basis until ~2008 or later and if they have kids who can read now, they were probably around 24 when they made their first posts.  The typical parent today posts predominantly pictures of their own children, but when I have kids, they could conceivably dig back to my sophomore year of high school and read through snippets of many years of my life.

By that time I will probably have very different opinions, goals, fears, dreams, everything will likely be different.  Just as my dad and I can now look back at our schooling years and wonder how we got where we did.  How much can knowing that much about your own parents, and to a certain degree yourself, change your life?  It's almost like Marty McFly going back and meeting his young mother and father, it could be scarring just as easily as it could be inspiring.  Funny as easily as it could be sad.  It's a completely uncharted territory for children from the next generation and I don't know what the answer is yet.