I suppose it was inevitable that the son would follow in the footsteps of the father.

Still, there are worse things that Isaac could be doing than starting his own blog.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Isaac has always loved writing. Like me, words are his weapon of choice and he takes great pride in his ability to bend them to his own will. Where his siblings love to draw and paint, Isaac is happiest with a pen in his hand or with his fingers hovering over a keyboard.

Like father, like son.

He first showed an interest in my blog a couple of weeks ago. In that thoughtful way that he has, he wanted to understand what I wrote about and why, and then stated that he was interested in having a blog of his own.

After a week of being constantly barraged with questions the moment I walked in the door, I got the message. We sat down together and looked at my blog, and I started researching possible options.

There are various sites such as Kidzworld which offer moderated forums and blogging facilities specifically for children. However, even though Isaac is well versed in internet safety, I’m wary of predatory behaviour even in a moderated environment. I’m not comfortable relying on someone else to monitor my child’s activity – and, more importantly, the activity of those who might interact with him.

Which is what has brought me back full circle to WordPress. I considered giving Isaac a small corner of this blog in a guest-posting capacity but in the end I’ve opted for setting up a separate blog that he can call his own but ultimately under my control.

With this new blog, Isaac’s Fun Days, he is set up as a contributor, which means he can create his own posts but they require my review and approval before being published. That means I can help him with spelling and grammar while also ensuring he doesn’t reveal anything inappropriate.

I’ve also set the blog to be private rather than public. It can always be opened up at a later date, but initially this means I can limit who has access to family and, perhaps, friends and keep him away from prying eyes and potentially hurtful or dangerous commenters.

In the meantime, he’ll be able to practise his writing skills and incorporate his own photos while also learning some of the basics of visual web design. It will also prepare him for the day when he has his own social media accounts. And if he decides after a few weeks that it isn’t for him, we can quietly put the blog into mothballs until such time as his interest is rekindled.

Somehow, though, I think this might be the beginning of a new passion. Who knows, one day soon he may contribute a guest post to this blog or make an appearance on my soon-to-be-launched podcast.

In the meantime, it’s another valuable skill for him to learn and another activity he and I can do together. My dad and I used to spend many happy hours cutting and splicing old-fashioned audio tape – it was our thing. Isaac and I are just embarking on its 21st century equivalent.

Like father, like son.

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