I won't say that it is true of everybody (as there are some quite odd people out there), but most of us want the best for our children. We generally try to do our best and most parents are riddled with worry and doubt about what they are doing. I worry too and one of the things I worry about is whether writing a publicly available diary, which includes what my children are up to, what they did to irritate me today and how they are really awful at eating their vegetables, is a good thing. There are ethical concerns here and I realise this.

I wondered about this for quite a while before I started this diary but eventually came to the conclusion that it might have more positives than negatives. Also, given the prevalence of social media, by the time the kids are ten they will all have so much information about them on social media sites that my site will be irrelevant (I think it already is).

What I try not to do is let this site in any way change the way I treat them. I never get them to do anything in order to write about it or photograph them, they are not my puppets.

I was scouting around for an interesting video for today's story and found an odd home video about a little girl eating ravioli. Now I am not really in a good position to criticise, as my children have what many will consider odd names, but I pity the poor child who grows up with the name Tinsley (pronounced Tensley on the video). I also pity this poor child for other reasons. The video looks like a bit of fun "Oh darling, Tinsley is covered in food - get the camera out so we can remember this moment." No problem there. I don't even have a problem with putting it on YouTube as this would let the relatives view it from anywhere and is a neat way of storing little snippets. But this video is just weird - these people may be the weirdest parents I have ever come across. The dad actively encouraging the child to rub food in its hair so he can film it and the incessant instructions and hectoring of the little mite.

Watch the video. If you know of any parents who are more irritating than these, please let me know and I'll put them on my blog too. Or if they live close to me, I'll pop over and punch then in the goolies.