Normal husband shaming
The first rule, in our opinion, is no sleeping pictures. There are many sleeping pictures that you may wish to share with your immediate family (man with complimentary hotel-pillow chocolate melted all over his head; man asleep on the floor next to bed having failed to make it into bed); but far better to get them awake (less underhand) then follow these rules:
Only send pictures, or, for that matter, relay stories, to your Circle of Trust (if you stick to this you have no need to worry about the wider shaming rules). Otherwise, read on.
Only send pictures/relay stories that you would be happy for your eldest daughter to see/hear. A reveal too far is anything that would embarrass a daughter.
If the story involves extreme stupidity bordering on the alarming – eg filling the non-diesel car up with diesel twice in a month – then consider not mentioning it in front of prospective employers/people who rely on his judgement.
If in doubt, circulate photographic evidence of shaming behaviour without the shamed in the frame. Some examples of our own evidence (always goes down well with the children):
Teeth marks in the cheese on the shelf in the fridge.
Pictures of the hedge after his “clipping job”, which now looks like it’s been doused with Agent Orange. Where are the roses? All gone.
Picture of the vandalised smoke alarm: reportedly just couldn’t find a way to unscrew it to check the beeping batteries, so used a hammer.
Extreme man shaming
Johnny Depp pictured (by his now ex-wife) out cold covered in melted ice cream, springs to mind. Also there was that film of David Hasselhoff (taken by his daughter) drunk and eating a burger that went viral. On that occasion, the world shaming prompted him to seek help, so not all bad then.
Wife shaming
Just in case any men out there were wondering if there is an equivalent for wives, there is not. Wife shaming is not a thing and is extremely ill-advised. The humblebrag sort, eg “here she is looking extremely hot having cooked a cake that didn’t quite rise in the middle, oh dear!” would be OK. But on the whole, don’t go there.
