Comments on: That Queasy Feeling: Parenting, Privacy and Blogging

By: AKMuckraker - In Solidarity « The “More” Child

AKMuckraker - In Solidarity « The “More” Child — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:37:32 +0000

[...] is standard operating procedure in some quarters–in essence, Welcome to the Club. Part of me anticipated that something like this could happen. Now that it’s happening…. Well, it’s [...]

By: Adso

Adso — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:07:41 +0000

If it makes you feel any better, I lurch back and forth about these issues also. I tend to be guarded about what information to reveal about our family or our child, usually to the point of silliness, but I worry about people being able to put too much information together from disparate posts or disparate sources. Personally, I tend to be over-cautious, which is probably better, or at least I hope so — but at the same time, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about giftedness, homeschooling, curricula, education, and other subjects I’m interested in from blogs — including yours!

By: Jodi S.

Jodi S. — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:57:25 +0000

My husband and I run a small weekly newspaper and my husband writes a weekly column, which often features stories about our family. My husband never would write about our son’s extreme giftedness, but I suppose to many readers it was obvious. It was easier to write about things that our readers could really relate to- the basic childhood milestones, not about the fact we had a two year old who was reading fluently.

As our son got older, and did start asking other newspaper friends how they dealt with writing about their kids as they got old enough to really notice, and all said their kids were simply used to it.

I had more of an issue when I was asked to speak with a reporter from our state’s largest newspaper, who was writing a story about academic acceleration. I was told she was speaking to a number of parents. I figured since I was someone who was interviewing others on a daily basis, I really should volunteer. My son was 11 at the time, and spending about half his day in high school. We are in a small, rural K-12 school, so acceleration has been somewhat easier, at least logistically, since all the classes are in one building.

My son had done early entry to kindergarten, single subject acceleration up another two years, partial homeschooling, and additional grade skips. When the story came out, it turned out I was the ONLY parent quoted in the story, and the whole story was written around the spine of my son’s experience. My son has a different last name than I do, so his privacy was somewhat preserved, but it was still uncomfortable for me.

My son, on the other hand, wasn’t bothered in the least. The article came out the same week that he had his first real newspaper article published in a regional high school paper (he was 11 at the time).

Jodi S.

By: Kim/hormone-colored days

Kim/hormone-colored days — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:35:46 +0000

It can be a tricky line. Now that my boys are older, I am more careful about what I say about them, but as early as a year or two ago, I started asking them for permission to post various quotes or anecdotes on my blog, and I respect their opinions.

However, a few months ago I wrote about a boy my son had mentioned to me. I did it without any clues to the boy’s real identity. Honestly, only my son, the boy (who wouldn’t have any reason to read my blog) and I would be the only people who knew about whom I was writing. But my son glimpsed the post after it had gone up and was upset. I felt bad because he clearly felt I violated his confidence, so that raised my awareness a bit. Also, he told me he felt obligated to alert his friend to the situation. Damn those gifted kids and their strong sense of justice

On the other hand, my boys are under the impression that millions of people read my blog (not true) and they relsih this false, odd sense of celebrity.

Each writer has to drawn her own line of comfort and security.