What you didn't know about stick figure family bumper stickers.

There’s so much for parents’ to think about, but seriously, now we have to worry about this, too?

My Family car bumper stickers. They’re on every second car you drive past these days. Some people love them, some people think they’re really irritating, but now we’re being told they’re downright dangerous. Wait, what?

Families are being warned that their My family bumper stickers could be putting their family in danger. Why? Because criminals can use them to gain information about us.

But authorities are warning that some bumper stickers are too specific. Police explain that, for example, a funny bumper sticker depicting a divorce might alert a predator to the fact that no man is home or a bumper sticker of a military family alerts criminals that the man is frequently overseas for extended periods, leaving his wife and children home alone.

A "Soccer Mum" bumper sticker might alert a would-be thief that the family is out on Saturday mornings. Oh dear.

Now they're advising families to keep bumper stickers as generic as possible.

Reanna says the warning does make her think twice. "Luckily, I don’t have a lot of bumper stickers to say where my kids go to school. Still, knowing what family members are in my house, knowing that I could have a girl in there or a little boy is kind of scary.”

Now, I'm possibly the most paranoid parent on the planet and even I think that worrying about bumper stickers is a step too far, at least that's what I first thought until I started thinking about the kinds of bumper stickers myself and my family and friends have used:

LOVETHEEELS: Please rob us during any Eels home game because we won't be home.

PICTURE OF FAMILY CARRYING SURFBOARDS: Please rob us whenever it's sunny on a Saturday and Sunday because we will be at the beach.

DRAWING OF FAMILY WITH DOG: Please rob us early in the morning or late in the evening because we will be walking our dog.

Short of removing all bumper stickers from our vehicles that accidentally give away information about our family, I might choose to breathe into a brown paper bag and move on from this one. I mean really, we may as well never step out the door if we're to take every single warning on board.

Do you have a vehicle bumper sticker? Does it give away any information about your family? Do you think this is a valid concern or completely paranoid?

Here are some of our favourite bumpers stickers doing the rounds. We suspect the gun-toting-family bumper sticker will have the opposite affect and keep the criminals away: