I was reading one of the big name “Mommy Blogs” the other day – one of the ones where all of the cute stories of the things that the toddler does is on display for the world to see. I have to wonder – how will those kids feel later on about it?
As a Mom of a 14 year old, I realize that anything I write about him here is something that he might see. A Google search on my name will bring you to this site, and he actually knows where it is. Any words that I write here, I know there is a chance that he will read them along with other family members. I am ok with that – it is a choice that I made long ago. They are welcome to comment on my site, and while I will not often edit what I say about myself, I heavily edit what I say about him. Oh, I know I have shared a tale or two – some things that happened about 4 years ago come to mind – but I don’t do that now. Even then, it was all about the humor in the situation and nothing more. Now that he is a teenager, it has all changed.
Sure, I could write about the teen angst issues. The drama moments that come out of nowhere over nothing that seems to be everything all at once. The joys of puberty. The stories are not as funny as the joys of toddlerhood, and the photographs? Not as cute. But more importantly, it just wouldn’t be fair to him. If I wrote anonymously with nicknames for my entire family or behind a password protected wall that kept people out, that would be one thing. But that isn’t the case.
So whenever I read those cute tales of potty training and the terrible twos, I wonder how those kids will feel in 10 years.
8 replies on “Speaking of Kids…”
I often wonder the same thing. Bad enough that there are embarassing pictures taken, even worse if they’re available online!
I’ve always wondered that. I hated my mother sharing things about me to people we knew. I can’t imagine being Dooce’s Leta and finding out all the gory details about everything that happened when I was tiny. Seriously. I’ve never understood the line that people draw where on one side, they only get to share what they want to share about themselves but on the other, they feel totally at ease telling everything about their kids. Kids should have the same rights to privacy on the internet that adults do, and in fact, it’s really for the best now that I know more about the kind of creepies that are out there (I teach computers to kids, so it comes up).
Grr!
I worry about that all the time. I’ve found, in the last few years, I write less and less about the older kids and more about the little ones. I don’t know, I guess I don’t mind stories about myself when I was three as much as I do the ones where I’m thirteen.
Everybody kinda goes through the same things early on, so the laughs are more about the situation and not directed toward the child. As kids get older, they become more self aware. At that point, there is the possibility that they will jokes personally rather than laughing at the situation.
I often really wonder what those people are thinking. I suspect it’s “not thinking” that’s actually going on. There’s a reason I keep all my online journaling about my kids locked down on my livejournal.
What I think is wrong about it is that one of them (or maybe more… I don’t really know) does it for money. It supports them as their sole income. Stories about their kid, pics of their kid, put out on the ‘Net for the whole world to see so they can make money. That’s really sad.
Wow. You know, Margie? I’ve never really thought about it like that. But when you put it that way … it makes me feel all icky. That is just so wrong. It is like the cybergeek version of children’s beauty pagents or something like that!
Blogging about that stuff for money is rather icky. I don’t like the thought of it at all. On the other hand, I don’t think stories of potty training or other milestones are objectionable, but I suppose it would depend on the manner in which it is done.
I’ve very careful now not to mention any of my family by name, and I rarely post pictures of them. I’ve been known to post about things the kiddo says or does, whenI am looking for advice on how to deal with things. A lot of the people that read my blog are parents of older kids than mine, so they’ve been through issues that I might be going through.
Yeah, it might bug her later on that I put out there for the world to see that she was being a snot at school. But I got good hints on how to deal with it and the bad behaviour has stopped. And most of the stuff she does stays private.
As for blogging about my family for money, that’s just creepy and it would make me a bit suspicious about how much is posted on a blog like that is true, or if it’s just posted for shock effect to gain/ keep readers… I won’t even put a donate button on my site. Then again, no one would pay to read my blog either 😉