She Adored Her Potty Picture. Now It's Just Embarrassing.

Don't you dare show that to my prom date!

Oct 09, 2025

My daughter on her little potty when she was about 18 months old.

Mommy, mommy, I’m internet famous!!!

That’s how 7 year old “J” reacted the first time she found out how many people had likely seen this picture of her younger self proudly smiling for mommy while doing her business on her little pink potty.

Related side note: This picture has probably been seen by more people than any of the others I’ve ever taken. Back in 2010, I was relatively active on Flickr. I posted and commented regularly, and was a member of several groups. I uploaded this picture with a creative commons license. I got a few initial comments about how cute it was, then did think much more of it. Until …

“J”s mom started getting Facebook messages from her friends with links to articles about potty training, with our daughter’s picture front and center as the hero image.

These messages continued for YEARS. Seriously, I think the last confirmed sighting in the wild was as recently as 2022 or 2023.

When did the switch flip?

For the first 10 or 11 years of her life, “J” LOVED, LOVED, LOVED to have her picture taken. Seriously, there was one time when she was 3 or 4 that she fell and hit her head on the corner of a table. On the way to the hospital to get stiches, she had to stop to pose … with a smile and all !!

It’s just a little cut, and it doesn’t hurt too bad.

Or even a few years later, her and her younger sister would regularly get dressed up and go with daddy and his big camera to the park for “photo shoots”.

When in Texas, of course you dress up in your cowgirl outfits.

Then somewhere along the way we got to a point where she would hide from pictures, turn her head, definitely not smile, and sometimes even give me the exact same very annoyed look I’d seen seen plenty of time from her mom when I’d taken one too many pictures of her.

I could sometimes still get a decent picture if I was stealthy enough

Pictures on Special Occasions are still okay

Now we’ve reached the point where even when dad asks to take her picture, the answer is usually no unless it’s it’s a birthday, holiday, or if we’re lucky, Prom or Homecoming

“J” and her step-sister before Prom last year

Growing Up in the Digital Age

As a child of the 80s, I still can’t image the mixed feelings our kids and grandkids must have about knowing that virtually every moment of their entire lives has been recorded in one way or another … and much of it can currently be found on the internet. Sure, there are a few polaroids floating around from when I was a kid. But nothing at all like this, and certainly not from my teenage years, when I was also camera shy (probably for good reason), but it was much easier to avoid them.

I sometimes wonder if we would have things differently at those high school parties in 1986 or 1987 if every other person had a camera in their pockets and a way to share it to the world almost immediately.

I bet my current teens would love to see some of those shots. (If they existed) 🙃

A quick confession

I don’t know for a fact that “J” is embarrassed about that potty picture from when she was a baby. To be honest, I haven't asked her about it for a while now.

I do strongly suspect one thing though …

She will be Very Mad if I Show This Picture to her Prom Date.

… lol, I might do it anyway 🤠

Okay, Your Turn:

Do you have any potentially embarrassing pictures of your kids?
What do your kids think about them?
Is it ethical for us to share these pictures, even if they don’t want us to?

Let me know what you think: