By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Is it not supposed to be parents who embarrass their children, not the other way around?

Well not in politics. As Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is finding, like many before him, it's the offspring you have to watch out for.

Euan's high jinks

There is the youthful rebellion that sees your darling daughter splashed all over the tabloids in full, pierced punk regalia - as happened to then Health Secretary Kenneth Clarke in the 80s.

To make matters worse, his daughter was a student nurse and had some pretty critical things to say about her dad's policies.

Then there is the traditional teenage rites of passage that sees your son overdoing the lager and limes, getting sick in the street and waking up in a cell. Just ask Tony Blair about Euan.

Sell drugs

The prime minister is famous for trying to keep his children out of the limelight - the media, not the Soho club that is.

But as every parent knows, there is no prison on earth that can contain a teenager determined to do what all teenagers do.

In Mr Straw's case, his teenager appeared to want to sell drugs to a newspaper reporter in 1997.

Thatcher couldn't help Mark

It was all a bit silly, but the then home secretary had a reputation as a hard man to keep up - so he turned his son in to the police. Tough love indeed.

Now, in a less dramatic clash, the independent-minded offspring, Will, has joined the criticism of the government's policy on student funding.

And his father has had to allow that his son, as president of Oxford university students' union, is entitled to his opinion.

You could almost hear his teeth grinding as he said it, however.

Fried eggs

But, if it makes him feel any better, there are plenty of worse examples - far worse.

When Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her power her son, Mark, decided to show his own indomitable spirit by taking part in the infamously gruelling Paris-Dakar rally.

The Majors hit the headlines

He got lost in the middle of the desert. Not even mummy could help with that one.

Edwina Currie found her daughter stealing the headlines from her when, as part of a publicity stunt, she appeared as a page three girl with only a couple of fried eggs to provide cover.

Mind you, the idea of Edwina Currie being embarrassed by anything takes a bit of crediting. And we all know that she later more than got her own back on the embarrassing relatives scale.

While on the subject, even John Major's son, James, had his moments of waywardness, giving the paparazzi someone else to snap as they tumbled out of celebrity hangouts.

He redeemed himself, probably, by turning up in Downing Street with former model Emma Noble on his arm. They are now married with their own little bundle of future embarrassment.

Wry smile

More seriously, disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken had his own problems when he asked his daughter to lie in court for him.

She didn't have to and he went to prison.

Of course there is something sweetly ironic in all this.

Politicians, like no other group on earth - with the possible exception of priests - routinely put the family at the centre of their beliefs.

And they are usually all too ready to wheel them out for the cameras when it suits them.

So it brings a wry smile when the kids refuse to play along with the happy families masquerade.

It also shows, however, that underneath it all, politicians are just like the rest of us - completely at the mercy of their loved ones.