AlteredEgg.com - Parenting and Stupidity in the Information Age

Parenting and Stupidity in the Information Age

One of the joys of parenting is sharing stories with your spouse about the cute things your children do in the course of the day. It is also a joy to share pictures, movies and stories with your extended family, friends, or anyone else who will listen. Today's media makes it pretty easy to do that in just a few words or keystrokes.

YouTube has all sorts of video clips of children. I've watched cute babies in peals of laughter. I've watched a very obese boy singing a disgustingly cute song. I've seen footage of a boy on his way home from the dentist, intoxicated with laughing gas and acting foolish. This month I even read an article in Today's Parent in which a mom wrote a grossly detailed article about her son's public antics related to his private parts. The names of both the author and her child were published along with the article. After experiencing all of this, I have a word of advice for people who publish these things:

STOP.

For heaven's sake, PLEASE stop. Use your sleep-deprived, caffeine-enriched, camera-happy brains for at least a couple minutes before you let the public peek into your children's lives.

I write this as a guy who, in junior high, wrote a note to my "girlfriend" telling her in no uncertain terms that I had some considerable skill as a downhill skier. Somebody got a hold of that and – you guessed it – the whole school was teasing me about it for several days. Yeah, yeah, poor me. But I write this to make the point that the peers of any of the children I mentioned above are going to revel over these things with no less glee once these children reach that certain age when the world turns against them.

And what about when the kids become adults? Are employers going to hire them when the only difference between them and the next applicant is a video of them doing a stupid stunt and a face plant on the pavement? Are voters going to vote for them when they run for office and some busybody reporter digs it up?

Just a couple days ago I told my wife that I needed to tell her a really funny story about something one of my kids did. Later that day she asked me about it when her parents were visiting. I almost told her, but I bit my tongue until we were alone.

Please do the same, parents. Be very, very careful. Your children won't thank you for it, but at least they won't sue you into the ground once they turn eighteen.