Our sons are old enough now that I have to consider carefully how to blog about them. (Well, even more carefully.)
Some things are still easy. If they say funny things, they’re generally happy for me to share those, though most of those become Facebook statuses and not blog posts. But regular goings-on are more complex for them now. (Funny how that happens as you get older.)
I mean, Aaron was really mad at me when I took this photo of him, but he was also 2. I didn’t give his personal privacy any thought at all, and I don’t feel any differently about it more than nine years later. (While I’m sure there are those who would cluck their tongues at even that, I’m also sure they’re a small minority. Two-year-olds generally deal with unpleasantness with a meltdown. That’s not novel. I’m not embarrassing my 2-year-old showing him having one.)
But that kid’s 12 now. His brother will be 15 this fall. They’re beginning to have problems and experiences that much more closely resemble adult problems and experiences. They’re grappling with awkwardness—some manufactured, but some cruelly inflicted by puberty. Serving up some of the blow-by-blows they’re going through right now to my blog readership would be unkind.
And sometimes I do want to write about them, because they’re good stories. I may still, one day, for some of these things. The anecdotes will be 10 or 15 years old before I share them, though.
And I’ll still choose very carefully.
You might also like:
- Is online social networking killing the class reunion?
Recently I read an article examining Facebook’s role in class reunions. I found particularly interes… - Please like BoWilliams.com on Facebook
I made a Facebook page for BoWilliams.com some time ago, but never did much with it. I’ve decided to… - “…this is, essentially, the final BoWilliams.com post.”
Hello, dudes and dolls. The past three years have been hard on me. This is not a complaint, but mere… - What to do with past posts that don’t fit anymore?
I started this blog one night in October 2006, nearly on a whim. I mean, it was like I did the dishe… - Review: Bark & Barrel BBQ’s pastrami sandwich
I had a house-cured-and-smoked pastrami sandwich at Bark & Barrel BBQ (formerly Clyde’s BBQ) yes…
Some years ago, I basically made the decision not to write about any significant aspect of my family life. This decision has served me pretty well on balance, and if I were going to jump back in time to ’99 I’d make the same one again. On the negative side, that means I’ve missed out on telling my audience some funny stories; on the plus side, it means that I’ve also missed what, in retrospect, would have been great opportunities to accidentally embarrass my kids in a lasting way. Plus, my blog readers tend to be there for the technical content and not my personal musings, so it’s all worked out well.
Yeah, I can’t say that. I have a liberal arts degree, man. 🙂
I always thought a study would be interesting about kids being “raised on the internet” in these modern times. Everyone posting pics of their kids and being out there so publicly. I’d also like to know how reading comprehension has changed since taglines have taken over.
We’re getting into big times for me making sure my kids know how to write. It’s not been quite the desert I feared it would be, but it’s definitely no longer Mrs. Thagard taking three months with us in 1980. 🙁