A little boy had a shower with his dad on the weekend and it made headlines.

I had hoped this was just outrage for outrage’s sake. But it’s not.

A two-year old boy had a shower with his father over the weekend.

And it made headlines.

HEADLINES.

Can you believe it?

Hollywood gossip columnist Perez Hilton posted a pic on the weekend of himself having a shower with his two-year-old son with the caption: “Our family motto is: #fun! We try and incorporate fun into as much of the everyday things we do! #Bathtime.” 

His son – one of Perez Hilton’s two children — was grinning widely in the pic clearly thrilled to be having bath-time fun with Dad.

But sadly many, many people didn’t see it that way with Perez being called “creepy”, “odd” and even abusive.

Stunned by the outrage Perez later took to the social media site to explain that he actually had his “bathing suit on” and that he wasn’t even naked.

But let’s get real.

Who cares if he was naked? It’s his son. His son is two. They were having fun. And let me say again: IT’S HIS SON.

Parents and kids have baths, showers and even use the toilet in front of each other every single day. It’s not outrage worthy, it’s just… life.

When I first saw the posts I hoped that a majority of the people spitting venom were just deliberate trolls — either they didn’t have kids — because anyone who has ever actually had a child would realise that nakedness is a par for the course.

I have three children aged between four and eight and not a day goes by when they don’t see me naked. Most of the time it’s when a critical emergency crops up while I am taking a shower.

“Muuuuummmmm Minecraft won’t accept my password.”

“Muuummm I can’t find Barbie’s sparkly high heel.”

“Muuuuummm I’m hungry. So hungry. I have to eat now or I might diiiiiieeeeeee.”

My kids don’t look twice when they walk in and half the time they jump into the shower with me.

Is it a big deal? No, because they’re kids; kids who I hope view the human body as normal and natural, and kids who will one day tell me when they no longer feel comfortable with seeing their parents naked.

Kids. Like Perez Hilton’s toddler son.

The thing is that if I posted a similar photo on Instagram no one would have probably batted an eyelid. I would probably stem more outrage from the streaky glass on the shower door, or the scum rings on the bathtub. (Not to mention the beheaded Barbies floating in the bubbly water.)

If Kim Kardashian posted an image of her bathing with North West, the social media slayers would be more concerned with the size of her pregnancy bump. If Ryan Reynolds shared a shower pic of him and baby James we would be oohing and aching, our ovaries exploding.

But when a homosexual man does it there is outage.

Hilton is a single gay man. His two children were conceived via a surrogate and he raises them alone – with the help of his mum and a nanny.

Shortly after ‘showergate’ exploded Perez tweeted: “Homophobia may be overt or thinly veiled. It’s prejudice, laziness and outdated.”

It’s a difficult truth that this outdated and bigoted attitude is what’s behind the outrage.

What Perez Hilton posted – swim shorts or not – was parenthood. Pure and simple, warts and all.

What happened when he posted it was social media at its worst. Not pure, not simple – just vile ugly warts and all.