The latest headache for politicians with kids is having every indiscretion by the kid being posted online. We’ve had a rash of those in Massachusetts lately, involving the daughter of a candidate for governor and the daughter of the state treasurer. Both posted questionable photos on either MySpace or Facebook that got into general circulation.
The daughter of Treasurer Tim Cahill, who’s facing re-election, made the arguably more egregious breach since she is underage and posted photos of herself holding an alcoholic drink and wrote about her partying and other juvenile antics. But what really set me back was her father’s attitude about her web site.
Cahill, 47, said neither he nor his wife, Tina, parents of four daughters, “condone underage drinking for (Nicole) or anyone else.
“You can talk to them until you’re blue in the face about the dangers of alcohol,” he said. “You hope they make the right choices. They don’t. I didn’t.”
Cahill, a Democratic candidate for re-election, said he suspected his daughter, a 2005 Quincy High graduate, had a personal Web page but he chose not to snoop because, “I would never read my daughter’s diary.”
Never mind that as a politician what your family does in public becomes a reflection on you and fodder for an opponent’s campaign. What kind of clueless parent in this day and age, after all the warnings and object lessons, doesn’t monitor what their kids are doing online? A web site, especially a MySpace profile, is not like a diary since it can be read by anyone in the world, including every sexual predator with a computer, then at the very least her parents should be reading it too.
Cavalier about drinking
Technorati Tags:childrearing, Facebook, Massachusetts, MySpace, parenting, politics
