Keeping Your Children Out of the Spotlight

I’ve been doing Paper Beats World for about ten months now.  I’ve learned so much, and met so many awesome people.  You’ve probably learned a lot about me, too, because I am really fast to share my business.  It makes sense for me to talk about my life, since I’m writing a blog about being a writer with a day job and a family.  So you hear about my day job, and about fitting twenty five minutes into my day at random intervals.  You hear about the struggle to finish my fantasy series while raising two little girls.  You hear about all my little tips and tricks to cheat the clock and all the blogs I’m obsessed over.

What you don’t hear is a lot about what my kids themselves are up to.  I’m not the only one, either.  Bloggers that write about parenting and family life don’t do it either, even though you’d think that it would come up more.  There are a lot of reasons why.

• My daughters will have their own lives one day.  I don’t want my life to overshadow theirs.  If they end up being famous scientists or singers, I don’t want people to meet them and say, “Hey, you’re that writer’s kid.”
• I’m a loudmouth.  I’m pro gay rights, pro choice, an equal rights activist, Unitarian, Democrat.  I am going to have people disagree with me.  Some of them will decide to tell me of their disagreements, using four letter words.  I don’t want my kids to attract bad attention from my mouth.  They’ll get their own, I’m sure.
• The internet is forever.  If I were to write about something embarrassing my daughters did now, it would still be on the internet when they got older.
• Look, I don’t want to get creepy on you, but there are some sick people online.  I don’t want anyone seeing a picture of my little girls online, and grab them while they’re playing outside.  Maybe that’s a little paranoid, but maybe I’m okay with that.  Pedophiles are something I’m allowed to be paranoid about.

Especially if you intend to make a name for yourself, you’ve got to do your best to protect your kids privacy.  Here are some things to avoid.

• Don’t ever give your kids real names.  Obviously, not even their first ones, since your last name’s already out there.
• I’ve seen other bloggers show pictures of their kids, but I avoid it.  I do show pictures of my cat, though.
• My daughters show all sorts of talents and interests.  You will never see them on this site, though.  As much as I encourage my kids to get out there themselves, I and show off all their talents, and I love to brag on them, I want them to do that on their own.

So no matter how much you’re chasing the spotlight, keep your kids out of it.