The family columnist
“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” ~Stacia Tauscher
Using our kids as fodder for Facebook, Instagram, or blog posts is hardly new. Rare are the parents (or grandparents) who don’t share adorable photos of their kids and celebrate their latest achievements online.
Before social media took over, I wrote a family column for our local newspapers. Since I was a work-at-home mom, my Sunday column topics often included details about my school-aged son.
So it was a thought-provoking exercise for me to revisit those column-writing days in an essay I wrote a few years ago for The Christian Science Monitor. How much public attention is appropriate or healthy for our kids? How do our kids really feel about it? Are we overstepping personal boundaries or violating our children’s privacy when we share the details of their lives? Click here to read the essay. –CL
Cindy La Ferle
Throughout my career, I've worked as a book production editor, travel magazine editor, features writer, and weekly newspaper columnist. My award-winning lifestyles features and essays have appeared in many national magazines and anthologies, including Newsweek, Reader's Digest, The Christian Science Monitor, Writer's Digest, Victoria, Better Homes & Gardens, Bella Grace, and more. My weekly Sunday "Life Lines" column ran for 14 years in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, MI) and won a First Place (Local Columns) award from the Michigan Press Association. My essay collection, Writing Home, includes 93 previously published columns and essays focusing on parenthood and family life.
6 Comments
Lynne
Another wonderful column! And such a great picture of your and “your subject!”
Cindy
Lynne, as always, you’re a peach! Thank you 🙂
Debra Darvick
Wonderful photo and oh yes I know that push-pull. Whose life is it anyway and who’s got rights to the story! treading carefully might not sell newspapers but it sure won’t play havoc with your most cherished relationships.
Cindy
Well said, Debra. I often worry about the kids whose parents are brutally honest in their writings.
Bridgette
I must admit that I am guilty of this. I worried so much when they were young, and usually with good reason!
But today, as our girls turn 31 and 21, I have to say, I love who they have become 🙂
Can you hear my sigh of relief?
Cindy
Bridgette, knowing you, I am pretty sure what you wrote about your girls was pretty “tame” compared with what I’ve reading in countless mommy blogs over the past 10 yrs. Some writers will stop at nothing to get readership and attention — while their poor kids melt in the spotlight.
That said, as I noted in the CS Monitor essay, even the cute little family anecdotes can be a source of embarrassment for a child. Like you, I am relieved that my son has grown up relatively “undamaged” … and I owe him a debt of gratitude for his patience and good sportsmanship 🙂