Alan Kercinik has been a Chicagoan his whole life and a dad since 2009. He finds it easy to relate to his two boys, since he still likes most things from his childhood. All opinions here are his own, to the relief of his wife, employer, family and majority of his friends.
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Peggy Orenstein wrote a piece in the New York Times over the weekend, about how Twitter has invaded her life. In it, she tells a story, of enjoying a moment with her daughter, and the mental gymnastics she went through to compose the perfect tweet to document that moment.
That battle, between the urges to live and capture your life, is nothing new. It’s not new to writers, who have been known to jot things down their friends say during dinner and other invasions. And it certainly isn’t new to parents. How many photo albums are filled with pictures that follow children from birth to college graduation?
It’s not new. But it’s a lot more tempting and ever-present, now that you can walk around with an editing suite in your pocket. Why not grab a quick five minutes of video, cut it and post it to Facebook?
I was thinking about this on Sunday. We were invited out to a farm, well north, for a corn roast. It was worth the hour-and-a-half drive. Rolling green hills and delicious corn on the cob are two things we don’t get enough of in Chicago.
Jack was in some sort of personal heaven. Big spaces to walk. Tractors and trucks to climb into. (He has a thing for heavy machinery already, drawn to SUVs and dump trucks.)
He’s doing all this. And I’m grabbing for the camera. And I’m thinking about the blog post that I want to write, about watching him climb into the cab of a truck and putting a sweaty, well-worn red baseball cap on his head and sitting behind the steering wheel.
When I started this blog, I didn’t have any guidelines in mind, for what was fair game regards to Jack and what isn’t. But what I think I’ve been doing, subconsciously, is focus more on my reactions to Jack, rather than tell stories about him. For one, who wants to read about every time the kid blows out a diaper? Not me and, I’m guessing, not any of you.
But I also think that I’ve been trying to respect his privacy. That probably sounds weird, given that he’s less than two years old. There will come a time, probably sooner than I’m ready for, when Jack will tell me not to write about something. I want to honor that, even now. It’s important to me, to respect who he is on his terms, to allow him some space of his own. It’s not something I necessarily grew up with, so I’m probably over-sensitive.
Even with all that said, I still decided to include some pictures of the boy, down on the farm. Because it’s pretty awesome for me, to see him so happy, and I wanted to share. But Jack, I promise. I’ll never post pictures of you covered in mud or wearing something like that pink bunny outfit from A Christmas Story. That’s just going way too far.
Plotting his escape.
Jack's love affair with heavy machinery started at a young age.
If he could have eaten the actual cob, he might have.
11 comments
Ali Montag says:
August 5, 2010 at 3:12 pm (UTC -5 )
You kid needs these: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yqW6xwT…
Sydney Owen says:
August 5, 2010 at 3:20 pm (UTC -5 )
Um yeah, totally awesome. And you're 100% correct, I don't want to hear about precious Jack blowing out diapers. Jack doesn't poop. He's an angel.
Ali Montag says:
August 5, 2010 at 5:05 pm (UTC -5 )
Yeah, I'm with Syd. The children pooping has already been summed up pretty well by this writer: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G3CDPSX…
Ali Montag says:
August 5, 2010 at 5:08 pm (UTC -5 )
And then we can get him this shirt: http://bit.ly/aHR11k
Alan Kercinik says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:05 pm (UTC -5 )
I actually want this shirt for myself.
Alan Kercinik says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:05 pm (UTC -5 )
To dispel any rumors: while Jack is awesome, he is no angel, if his diapers are any evidence.
The JackB says:
August 21, 2010 at 1:54 am (UTC -5 )
it is a worthwhile concern, what to include and what not to.
MJ Tam says:
August 22, 2010 at 6:20 am (UTC -5 )
I LOVE LOVE LOVE his photos! And thank you for sharing your story in my blog.
About respecting privacy: I always conscientiously think about what I blog on my family and after a few years of this I’ve come up with my own blog rules that we can all live with.
Alan Kercinik says:
August 22, 2010 at 6:21 pm (UTC -5 )
While I don’t have to worry about him rebelling against me because of something I’ve written just yet, I want to be mindful so that he doesn’t light the garage on fire because of a post when he’s 16.
Alan Kercinik says:
August 22, 2010 at 6:22 pm (UTC -5 )
Thanks for reading, MJ. I know one rule I’ve already implemented is making sure the wife is ok when I mention or blog about her. It’s kept me more or less out of trouble so far.
The JackB says:
August 24, 2010 at 4:03 am (UTC -5 )
Nah, he’ll do that just because.