Quite a bit has been written about the risks of our children being a bit too transparent with their lives online.  Horror stories abound about the perils of kids posting embarrassing or incriminating pictures on their MySpace and Facebook pages.  Primetime news shows are giving significant air time to controversial trends such as tweens and teens “sexting” risque pictures of themselves to each other via their mobile phones.  As parents, we have debated the pros and cons of visiting our children’s personal pages to see firsthand how our digital darlings are presenting themselves to the world at large.  Should you “friend” your kids on MySpace and Facebook?  Should you visit their sites and follow them on their social networks?  Are their status messages meant for a parent’s prying eyes?  There are strong and fervent opinions on both sides of the “parents friending their children” fence.  But what about the other side?  What about YOUR digital droppings???  Do your kids read your blog???

IS IT GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IF THE KIDS TAKE A GANDER?

Let’s take a moment to look at the other side.  The advent of the internet, blogs and social media has not just changed the landscape for our children.  If you are reading this you are probably very familiar with the world of blogging.  There is a good chance you have a blog of your own, and an even better chance you are dabbling digitally with an account on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.  Do your kids read your blog?  Do they follow you on Twitter?  Do you want them to?  Just as we must teach our kids to be thoughtful and considerate about what they do and don’t share online, perhaps we have to think about our own online output.

THE PARENT AS A PERSON

I am assuming that as a faithful reader of a fine blog such as Dad-O-Matic you are an excellent online citizen, and, save for the occasional drunken Tweet, your online trail does not contain anything you wouldn’t want your own kids to see (and I am just kidding about the drunken Tweet…).  However, if your kids do read your blog or follow you on Twitter, they may get to know a side of you that is very different from the “Mom” or “Dad” they know and love.  They may learn about your interests and point of view about things you don’t typically share or discuss with them: things that are important to you but that they may, or may not understand or appreciate.  In my own case, I can only imagine how goofy my kids must think I am when they see my daily “TweetThatTune” posts, or see my (hopefully) humorous posts and videos at www.SocialNetworkingRehab.com.  On the other hand, having the opportunity to share my posts here on Dad-O-Matic with my kids has been a great joy, and I think they have truly enjoyed being the inspiration for so much of my writing.

What do you think?  Do your kids read your blog and follow your online activities?  How do you feel about it?  Is it a good thing.. or not so much?  Let’s discuss it more in the comments!

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 20, Ethan, 18 and Olivia, 17).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab.

Photo Credit: © Anatoly Tiplyashin – Fotolia.com