Parenthood - What's Goin' on Down There, S01E07

I said from the first meeting of Sarah Braverman (Lauren Graham) and her daughter's English teacher, Mr Cyr (Jason Ritter) that the relationship was nothing but a bad idea. This episode, however, gave me a far worse outcome than I would have expected.

I was very surprised that Julia (Erika Christensen) and Kristina (Monica Potter) were encouraging Sarah to go for the teacher. I guess dating a teacher is a good choice compared with all the other men Sarah has likely dated, but there are complications when a child is involved. Leave it to Adam (Peter Krause) to be the only one to question the choice, and to notice very easily and quickly that Amber (Mae Whitman) had a crush on her teacher.

The only thing worse than complicating your child's life by dating her teacher is when you are dating the teacher who is not only her inspiration for not wanting to F_ up her high school career, but whom she also has a crush on. Mr. Cyr was such an important relationship for Amber than even if she hadn't had a crush on him, she still would have been hurt that he was giving her mother more attention than he gave her.

Plus, that he is equidistant for both of them in regards to age just makes the entire situation worse, particularly when society generally considers that men should be older and women younger.

And if all that hadn't been bad enough, for Sarah to simply go into Amber's room a day or two before she had the writer her SATs to break her the news that she was dating her teacher, a move she made as a result of her conversation with Adam who told her that Amber had a crush...well that's just the most idiotic parenting technique I've ever heard of. There should be absolutely no surprise that Amber not only skipped her exam, but then skipped town with her old boyfriend.

What I think Sarah should have done (after not dating him in the first place) was 1. wait until after the exam, and 2. feel out whether Adam's information was correct.

Her actions after she discovered that he was speaking the truth was the end the relationship, but at that point, the damage was already done. Her daughter was already crushed. The only explanation for why she approached the situation the way she did was in the hopes that Adam was wrong, and that Amber would be genuinely happy for her. Selfish.

What do you think Sarah should have done or said?