A Dad being a parent to his sick kid…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36322279

Re: the people who have a problem with this pic: it says an awful lot more about them than the pic. IMO.

What aka said

I’m assuming the people who have a problem with this have no children themselves.

[/sweeping generalisation]

No kids here, no problem with the photo.

Some people are just twits.

No kids here. My first thought was ‘Daaaaw’, not to call cps!

I’ve no problem with the photo or the story behind it. But naive to do the social media thing with it though. It strikes me as a very private moment.

I suppose it’s an odd photo to share but I see no wrong in it whatsoever. We have two kids, both who’ve been unfortunate enough to see my hairy arse on many many occasions. People who cover up and hide away will raise children with issues if you ask me.

Onzadog, I do understand the differing views on sharing it on social media.

But I really, really, really don’t understand the following:

“…for some people the image is inappropriate at best and at worst has undertones of pedophilia”

The human race needs to take a long hard look at itself!

I’ve no problem with the photo or the story behind it. But naive to do the social media thing with it though. It strikes me as a very private moment.

Word

Don’t really see the need to share the photo of what is a very private moment…..unless it’s to get noticed

But naive to do the social media thing with it though. It strikes me as a very private moment.

She’s a photographer. Its her job to take photos and show them to people.

But naive to do the social media thing with it though. It strikes me as a very private moment.
She’s a photographer. Its her job to take photos and show them to people.

Ah guerrilla marketing.

I thought it was a lovely picture. If you want kids not to be uptight about their bodies then you need to be a bit relaxed about nudity. I regularly shower with my daughter as she needs help with her mad hair. She also needs to see what real people look like or she will think the media images are what folk actually look like. As her mum I have no issue with her seeing me in the nude; she understands about private places but is relaxed about nudity in the house.

The photo is of a private moment and I wouldn’t share if it was me but it is beautiful and captures very well what parenting is about IMHO.

I’d already seen this article elsewhere on other photographic sites. In this article by the BBC, the text refers to ‘dual standards’ contrasting the reception this image had with an almost identical one that featured a mother and child. This is less about dual standards and more clearly about unconscious gender bias; it reveals to us the way we encode paternal relationships as being pejoratively different to maternal ones.

As for merit of photograph, it is at once both sensitive and revealing. It shows the vulnerability of both parties in the shot; the child who is seriously ill and the father, who is aferall naked and revealled to the world.

I’ve no problem with the photo or the story behind it. But naive to do the social media thing with it though. It strikes me as a very private moment.

On this point, I think the negative reactin is precisely why it should be shared. Like all good art, it challenges prejudice and ignorance. Anticipating it might have an adverse as well as a positive reaction would be an entirely justifiable reason for publishing it.

Agree with AKA sometimes people do protest a bit too much. Like the type of person who’s reaching for the keyboard pitchfork whenever someone gets Yew Tree’d before they’ve even seen a court room.

A few times my daughter has been ill and vomited all over herself in her sleep / cot, hair full off sick and and half asleep baby isn’t the time for wet wipes so I’ve had to hold her in the shower as she clings onto me sobbing (she doesn’t like the shower) and my Mrs hoses us both down. The idea that someone would sexualise that, by protesting about it makes me sad and slightly angry at the same time. It’s not exactly time for pics for the album, but then neither of us are photographers and it would illustrate parenting to non parents past the school run and first time on their bike moments, other parents just know sometimes you’re singing Hickory Dickory in the park and life is bliss, sometimes it’s 3am and you’re covered in vomit calming a Baby with a bad tummy.

Apart from the picture being a bit trite, I see nothing wrong with it.

Don’t particularly care about the content, father and son naked, ho hum. It should have been kept for the family album though. I don’t particularly want to see it.

WHat he said and it has more meaning once you know the reason without the context its just a bit weird in the over sharing of intimacy sense that seems to be what social media is all about anyway…private moments given to the world

Not offended but not **** interested either.

Nowt wrong with it. Folk who see wrong in it are the problem

Ah guerrilla marketing.

😆 that’s what I thought. The gorilla bit anyway. Fat hairy gorilla…

Not that many people are questioning it. The survey that the bbc article referenced showed that 94% saw nothing wrong with the photo. I doubt you could get that many people to agree that the sky was blue and grass green. So all in all no one is outraged.

It’s probably just a case of people trying to find some content that they can manufacture a storm about in the hope that it draws traffic to their little bit of the web. And that isn’t intended to be aimed at the photographer although it will have worked out very well for her.

Personally I wouldn’t share it, but given the nature of the photograph the people best placed to make the decision are the photographer and her husband. If they’re happy to share then I don’t see a problem with releasing it.

Ginger: 100% agree with everything you said.

There are very few boundaries in our house. Our daughters (6 and nearly 3) see both of us naked every single day. It is just entirely normal and natural for them and personally I think that is very healthy. Too many kids, especially girls, grow up ashamed of their bodies because all they have to compare it to is photoshopped perfection.

It’s probably just a case of people trying to find some content that they can manufacture a storm about in the hope that it draws traffic to their little bit of the web. And that isn’t intended to be aimed at the photographer although it will have worked out very well for her.

Debate about click bait/social media manipulation aside, it still raises the point that most humans are not scumbags and suggesting that a photo of a father caring for his sick child is possibly pedophilia simply highlights a lot about what is wrong with society these days.

I never saw my parents naked. We always covered up. And it’s not that I hate being naked but I find it a bit weird and get a bit uncomfortable even in my own home. I’ve never thought of my body as something to be amazed or proud of. My wife is the exact opposite. Since we’ve had kids They’ve been unfortunate enough to see my hairy fat arse pretty much daily. And I think being relaxed around them about myself helps them to not be embarrassed by it. It is not unheard of for my son who’s 6 or my daughter who’s 3 to climb in the shower with either myself or my wife.
We need to be more comfortable with ourselves and our bodies. Especially with our own children to teach them that there’s nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.
It’s a lovely picture. Just a kid and their dad. Made more poignant by the fact that the child is ill.

Like all good art, it challenges prejudice and ignorance

I blame Eric Gill.

It’s probably just a case of people trying to find some content that they can manufacture a storm about

I don’t think this is true either. Some people are just incredibly uptight about non-sexual nudity for some reason. I’ve seen breastfeeding mums being called “sluts”, “perverts” and “attention whores” on social media which is frankly disturbing, especially as the most vocal detractors are usually other women!

Oh, the internet. I find it very hard to care either way about something that’ll be forgotten about in a day or two.

GrahamS – Member

There are very few boundaries in our house. Our daughters (6 and nearly 3) see both of us naked every single day. It is just entirely normal and natural for them and personally I think that is very healthy. Too many kids, especially girls, grow up ashamed of their bodies because all they have to compare it to is photoshopped perfection.

This times lots and lots. Only diff we have 1 daughter who’s approaching 3, and supremely comfortable in her own skin… Like her slightly wobbly father 😀

Sexist views if women can only care for their feverish child.

Perception.

Like all good art, it challenges prejudice and ignorance
I blame Eric Gill.

His commune was just up the road from here. I used to work there with his great grand daughter. I barely escaped with my honour in tact.

Seen that the other week on social media without even reading the story I spotted that was unwell kid and what they were doing. Why the hell anyone would think it was anything else is lost on me.

Trolls the lot of them, add them to the list for the wall.

“Thomas had spent hours in the shower with him, trying to keep his fever down and letting the vomit and diarrhea rinse off of them both as it came,” Whitten wrote in her post accompanying the photo.
“He was so patient and so loving and so strong with our tiny son in his lap… I stepped out and grabbed my camera and came back to snap a few images of it and, of course shared them.“

Honestly I don’t really care but if your thoughts were kids sick and vomiting all over the place but hey it makes a great pic I’ll share it with everyone then maybe you missed the point.
Also being the internet age everything you post will exists forever and follow you round like a dossier. These kinds of pics etc. would be filed in the family album and left for the odd embarrassing moment later in life now it’s there for everyone.

What’s embarrassing about father cradling a sick child?

His wife took it as it captures perfectly the love of father and child.

ask the kid when the pic goes round school… maybe not later in life but why the need to share it?

Why would the kid be embarrassed. She was showing her friends and family how much her husband loves his child and how much a good parent he was looking after him when he was sick, I guess she was proud.

Why would the kid be embarrassed

Dunno, do you remember being a kid? Anything and everything 🙂
For me it’s part of the age of sharing everything, great she was proud, great that it was an awesome moment of parenting and I see it as a very great image of that but one which in reality is of a private moment of family life.

Yeah I remember being a kid.

It’s easier now to share that is all, no different from getting the family out when visitors come other than instant.