The trouble with camcorders isn't just that they get in the way of midwives clearing the airways of newborn babies. They do, as first time father John McCauley found out when he lost a breach of contract case against a midwife at Mount Carmel maternity hospital who had asked him to stop filming while she attended to his daughter. They also get in the way of life.

It's a nice idea to capture family milestones on camera but have we become so obsessed with rewinding the memory of that important moment that we miss it when it actually takes place?

Most women would prefer to have a partner who is fully engaged with the experience of the birth of their child than a stranger with a piece of technology stuck to his eye shouting "smile", or "hold that just one more second".

Yet young fathers these days are obsessed with recording the birth of their children and in the process detach themselves from an intensely emotional experience.

How many birthday moments have been missed as a parent rushes for the camera and separates himself or herself from the children in order to savour the memory?

First day at school? Click. First Holy Communion... click, click, click. First performance on stage? Click, click, click ,whirr. First boyfriend/girlfriend, leaving cert results, leaving home, wedding – suddenly all gone and you realise you weren't actually there…