Being a mom has changed me. Shocker, I know. Having kids will make your life adjust and shift in directions it hadn’t before. Some of those directions are completely expected, others, however, can be surprising. One of the surprising directions that parenthood changed me was through my social media use.
Social media has been a godsend for many parents, myself included.
You feel connected and, at times, satisfied to find answers to so many parenting questions quickly. It takes no time at all to search for any topic and have a myriad of answers at your fingertips. Need advice on potty training? Ask your Facebook friends and I am sure you will be inundated with enough ideas to get you started. Social media has become our parenting “village” through which we raise our children. This virtual “village” shares your joys and frustrations with the click of a button. Who doesn’t love getting a like on your parenting win (or loss) for the day?
I recognize the value in this virtual “village”, but I also have found that I need to proceed with caution. While much of my parenting story is mine to tell, some of it also belongs to my little humans. I don’t feel authorized to tell their part of the story without their consent.
Sharing my parenting journey has started to blur a line for me. I do want to be able to share my stories, feelings, and experiences of parenting my boys because it brings me joy, but I have become more intentional about trying to only tell my story and not the nitty gritty of their little lives.
This becomes especially hard for parents raising kiddos with medical issues.
We do so much of our searching and connecting online or we post about their conditions on our social media to help keep our virtual “village” in the loop of how our kiddos are doing. I have a hard time walking the line of not telling my son’s whole health story, but still being able to inform and educate those in our circle. Which part of that story is mine to tell? With him being so young, our connection is still close enough that it is hard to discern our two stories from each other.
I will keep sharing, but I am trying to develop a filtering process to help me from violating my future son’s trust. Do you have rules about what you do and don’t share concerning your kids and your social media?
