IT is a truism that when a person decides to become a politician he or she not only exposes their own lives to the pressures of party politics but also those of their family.

Given the unpredictability of the General Election, it seems the two contenders to be Prime Minister are pulling out all the stops to curry favour with the voters.

So we had the soft focus interviews, which had varying degrees of success for Ed Miliband and David Cameron.

The purpose of these is to show how the lives of the extraordinary can be ordinary and that, despite all the power and influence they wield, the Prime Minister and the would-be Prime Minister are like the rest of us.

Mr Miliband's task in opening the door to his family life was meant to show us that the geek from North London was not only a "happy warrior" but also a devoted father and husband to his two sons and his wife Justine.

So we had him walking merrily through a local park with his family and the prescient warning from Mrs Miliband that she feared the personal attacks on her husband were going to get much worse.

The aim from Labour HQ was clear; to show that despite all the negativity of the Tory Press, Ed was, in fact, a nice bloke, who cared deeply about the lives of others.

Equally, Mr Cameron's upfront and personal interviews were all meant to debunk the Tory toff caricature. However, his kitchen confessional about his ruling out a third term before he had even got a second backfired badly and overshadowed all the warm through-the-keyhole footage.

So this weekend we had not only cute pictures of his children but also an Hello-style interview with SamCam: "Dave runs the country, I do the school-run."

A fine line exists before a politician can be accused of shamelessly seeking to exploit their family for pure political gain. Mr Cameron came close.

Of course, politicians would not open up their families in this way, if they thought it did not influence some people; Nick Clegg interestingly never exposes his children to the glare of the TV camera.

But they have to be careful. Voters are not stupid and there is always the chance that saccharine exposure like the PM feeding and snuggling a newborn lamb on Easter Sunday can alienate as many people as it attracts.