Doesn't Every Family Have A Photo Of A Baby Drinking A Beer?

This week an Instagram photo of a toddler drinking out of a Bud Light can went viral. The caption next to the photo said, “Starting early these days!” I don’t find it weird that a kid tried to drink out of a beer can. My kid loves cans and will grab any in his vicinity. I’m also pretty sure I have a photo like this of myself as a child. I do find it a little weird that some guy took a pic of a child he didn’t know and posted it to his public Instagram account. Is that Sanctimommy of me?

When I first saw the story, I thought, “Big woop. Every family has a pic like this.” But when I realized the family didn’t take the picture, I felt a little different. I have to admit I would find it pretty disturbing if someone I didn’t know took an Instagram picture of my kid and it went viral. The user who posted the picture makes it clear that it’s not his kid:

For anybody who sees this picture. I don’t know the kid. We took this pic while tailgating. I can’t imagine that he was drinking it for real. Just thought it was a crazy picture. #notmykid #crazypicture

Is it okay to take pictures of other people’s children and post them to Instagram? I’m not sure that I would feel comfortable doing that. I’m sure this guy had no idea the photo was going to go viral, but now that it is – isn’t it a little strange? I realized I just posted the photo too, but it’s already viral and I knew you were all going to click through to see it anyway.

Maybe the parents haven’t seen it yet; something tells me if they had they may have asked him to take it down. Or maybe they just have good senses of humor. Whatever the case, I seriously doubt the toddler was downing a beer. Seems like it was just one of those impromptu photo ops. The kind that are ideally caught by parents – not strangers.