Writing Prompt: Exposed

In Exposed, Ellen Blum Barish describes how she felt when her daughter’s writing left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. The experience made Blum Barish more protective of her family, and keen to avoid exposing them through her own writing:

If this was how Emily felt when she read about herself in my columns, then I had no other choice. With my next column deadline nearing, drowning in doubt and guilt, I decided that my children’s mental health was far more important than column inches. There were plenty of other subjects to write about. I had no other option: I would not write about them again.

That theme is also explored in an essay from our archives, written by Cindy La Ferle, and entitled I wish you’d quit writing about me.

Have you ever struggled with the possibility of exposing your children by writing about them? Or do you know how it feels to be the one exposed by someone else’s writing?