Reasons my son is crying: fun or cruel?

Now one dad has harnessed the power of his son’s mini-meltdowns, creating an internet sensation with his controversial blog, Reasons My Son Is Crying.

It’s a simple idea: Greg Pembroke, a dad from Rochester, New York, takes photos of his 20-month-old son, Charlie, while Charlie is crying. He then uploads them to his Tumblr account with a sentence explaining what caused his child’s latest tears.

“I wouldn’t let him drink bath water.”

“He dumped a full cup of water on his own face.”

“I wouldn’t let him eat the candy he found on the diner floor.”

“The slide is not slippery enough.”

And it seems to have hit a chord with parents everywhere, exploding in popularity since it began just one week ago. After the Tumblr has attracted thousands of shares and comments, Pembroke has appeared on Good Morning America with his son, and has spoken to a series of news outlets.

Pembroke, who is also the dad of William, 3½, says he started taking the photos as a joke.

“I think every parent experiences [a child’s] meltdowns,” he told Today.com.

“I was just trying to have fun with the kids and with my friends. I didn’t expect people to relate to it as much as they did.”

While many can empathise with Pembroke’s thinking, not all parents agree with him posting the images online.

Dad blogger Jason Good, who last year wrote the hit article 46 reasons why my three-year-old might be freaking out, commented on his Facebook page that he wasn’t sure he agreed with Pembroke’s rationale.

“It's funny, but I would never put pictures of my kids crying for the whole world to see,” he wrote.

In another post, which has since been deleted, Good said that generally when his child is crying, he’s trying to help him, not stand back and take a photo. The debate which followed saw parents divided in their attitude to the account.

Regardless, it seems Pembroke will continue taking photos of a crying Charlie to share with the world.

“Kids have meltdowns 20, 30 times a day,” he said. “You can drive yourself crazy or you can laugh and just accept it."

See more of Charlie on his dad's Tumblr page, reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com.