The other day I was looking at video clips of my son. At the tender age of five, he has become something of a phenomenon on the Internet. As a mother, I wrestle with the ethics of allowing my child's image to be fashioned into mini-movies that people can send to each other online. It wasn't something I had intended - I am NOT a stage mom. In fact, I have absolutely no desire to promote my child's involvement with the entertainment industry in which I work.
It was an accident. I had a video camera and a child who engaged naturally in nonstop antics, which, as the family documentarian, I had captured on videotape. As it so happened, I was looking for new Mothers' Day card material for Rattlebox.com (the video e-card site that is an ever-more-consuming side venture to my day job as a TV producer). My son's on-camera musings are heartfelt and filled with irrepressible spirit; when he sings his own variation on a theme of "happy birthday" in his inimitable style, people are charmed enough to share it with each other to express sentiments of their own. How better to say it - than out of the mouth of a five-year-old. Is it really so wrong for me to infuse the world with the hope he so guilelessly embodies? OK, you sense my guilt. Despite my wariness of exploitation, he is the personification of my hopes.
"Hope," especially for a mom, can be a tricky feeling to cope with, though. "I hope he can make a living doing what he loves"; "I hope he'll find love and it will find him"; "I hope the world will be at peace when he hits 18. That seems so far away...oh, and what about college . . .?"
That's when "hope" began to swerve onto that dark highway of "fear." Images of foreclosure signs, wars, healthcare crises, lying governments and Grand Theft Auto IV flooded my entire body to the point that I had to put my Starbucks cup down and seriously consider my caffeine intake. Silly? Maybe. Nevertheless, the concerns and the consequences of our world are real.
What can I do? I vote, I volunteer and I try to reduce my carbon footprint. Here I am looking at clips of my son with hopes of his changing the world for the better, and yet, I seriously want to protect him so he won't be ripped apart by civilization, as we know it.
The last thing any mother wants to do is instill her own fears and insecurities into her children. How is he going to change the world if I don't let him experience it? The fact is, we don't know what the world will be like when our kids grow up and the most we can do is teach them to try to enjoy it as they're coping with all that it brings...and, of course, to laugh.
My business partner, Michelle, pointed that out during my caffeine-fueled attack: you can't take yourself too seriously. Sometimes all you really need is a good laugh to shake off the obvious shackles and get back to dealing with the day-to-day. Yes, there's crazy stuff happening in the world, but you can always count on the power of laughter.
This is the lesson I want to pass on to my son.
One day he may come to me with the weight of the world on his shoulders, fed up with high prices and incompetent politicians. I'll tell him that it's history repeating itself and to keep his sense of humor. And maybe I'll dust off these video e-cards in which he unwittingly starred as a child - a laughing, dancing reminder of a time when his life was simpler. Or perhaps I'll just threaten to show them at his graduation, engagement party or another of life's special (and very public) moments.
Like a mother's love, web video is forever...
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAP"
Nancy Gomez is a working mom who serves as President and Executive Producer of Film Garden Entertainment Inc. She is also Co-Founder and Co-CEO of www.Rattlebox.com, a website for "e-cards that don't suck." 
