Why you never see my son on my blog

Being a blogger is a tricky and funny business. You basically put your entire life out on the Internet for everyone to read and judge. You post a lot of photos of yourself and pray that no one thinks you're a narcissist.

Then you get pregnant and you've pretty much hit the blogging jackpot. Just about every girl loves to read another girl's prego adventures. You take your readers all along the journey through the good (and occasionally the bad) of every trimester. Then you have the baby and blogging gets a little more complicated. At least it did for me.

Right after I had Benson I started thinking a lot about privacy and what I was going to do to keep Benson safe from cyber creeps. I read this article about keeping your children safe on Instagram and it really hit me. Was I doing everything I should to keep my baby safe?

I thought about this for weeks. I looked at what other bloggers did. I asked people what their thoughts were. Finally, I talked with my husband.

That was probably what I should have done in the beginning. My husband is a pretty private person. After talking we decided that I wouldn't post photos of Benson on public outlets. If I do want to post a photo, I usually talk it over with Jason first to make sure he's ok with it. I want both of us to feel comfortable in how we present our son online, so I'm really glad that we were able to be on the same page about it.

I feel bad sometimes that I don't get to share all the adorable stuff that Benson does with all of you. 'Cause he's pretty much the cutest kid ever. ;) However, I think that child safety is really important.

Now, please don't get me wrong, if you post photos of your kids on your blogs or Instagram or Facebook, or whatever, I don't think you're bad parents. At. All. It just didn't feel right to me because most of my social media is public to the whole world. There are totally times I wish I hadn't made this decision, like when Benson has chocolate ice cream all over his face and is scrunching his nose up when he smiles. You better believe my first instinct was to share that cuteness on Instagram, but in the end I held off.

I don't want my son's adorable little face to be the catalyst for some perverse habit of someone who has a sick addiction. Even if I don't know that it's happening. I want his innocence to be held close and protected.

This isn't meant to be a "why you should do what I do" post. It's really just an explanation behind the choice I've made for my family.

However, I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the subject! What best practices do you use to keep your kids safe?