You might think I have a hell of a lot of nerve to call someone out for overexposing their child.
There have been times, many times, in this space where I have conspired to use Graham's antics to elicit from my readers gentle and knowing laughs.
At least I hope they are gentle and knowing laughs, because it is those kinds of laughs, and only those kind of laughs, that I am shooting for.
My boy is my heart, my whole heart. And the thought of ever mining his life for different kinds of laughs - cheap, jocular laughs, laughs born of fear or confusion or at the expense of his dignity or self respect - makes me feel ill.
And that's exactly what I told the reporter from the Globe and Mail newspaper when she interviewed me for a story published last week about the ethics of this Youtube video...
It bothered me to watch it.
A few years ago a couple of teenagers were arrested for smoking up (with marijuana) the two-year-old toddler they were charged with babysitting. A shocking and heartbreaking cell phone video shown on news programs depicted the poor, wee lamb stumbling around dazed and confused while his supposed protectors laughed uproariously.
My logical mind knows the boy in the video posted above is in a very different situation from the toddler in that video, but my initial, visceral reaction to both videos was the same: I want to protect those boys.
There is a difference, I believe, between a parent who holds up their child's antics in search of gentle, knowing chuckles and a parent who seeks to make them the butt of the joke. There is a line. And even if I can't quite articulate exactly where that line is, I think the video above crosses it.
And I don't care that some of the on-line comments to the Globe story assert that my worrying about having a laugh on a kid is just another example of the kind of over-protective, over-wrought parenting that is destined to create a generation of weaklings. (I don't care much what on-line commentors to that paper think in any case).
Because I know that at different times throughout his life, Graham will face scrutiny and teasing and perhaps even ridicule and as much as it pains me, I wouldn't have it any other way: people need to look at life from all sides in order to be fully rounded.
But he is my son. I am his mother, his safety and his home.
And you will never, ever, see the likes of that video in this space.
*Edited to add: I reposted the video - his dad has taken the original down and replaced it with the new one above that also runs ads promoting a web site he's created in order to cash in on his son's notoriety*
