Will Your Kids Hate You For What You’re Sharing Online?
Photo: Shutterstock / The BumpI share a lot of information about my kids online. Of course I think my kids are awesome, funny and adorable and being their mom is so much a part of who I’ve become that, naturally, I love talking about them. I post status updates, photos and funny quotes to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I blog about my kids on The Bump. I also started a Tumblr to both archive and showcase my son Cooper’s amazing writing projects. And last week, I shared his first love note with all 480 of my Facebook friends.
His kindergarten classmate Janie (name changed to protect the child whose mother may not be an over-sharer) wrote him THE MOST AMAZING love note, ever. She told him everything she loved him more than. She drew pictures of them holding hands. She was so excited to give it to him. It was delightful, delicious and memorable and my knee-jerk reaction was, “OMG I totally have to post about this amazing thing on Facebook!” So, I did.
The love note post got about 35 “likes” and the subsequent post I made showing the drawing of them together got another 31 “likes” plus comments. Everyone loved it! Who wouldn’t?! It was so. damn. cute. A few days later, people were asking if Janie had given him a Valentine. Only then did it dawn on me that this moment was now etched into Cooper’s online presence for all to see — and would I want someone posting about MY six-year-old love life on social media?!
My Facebook page is set to be private, but suddenly I fast-forwarded in my mind to his college applications, job interviews and future girlfriend Googles which could result in the discovery of all of this history — history that I made the choice to post about, not him. Would he think it was as endearing and cute as I do? Or would he want to disown me due to embarrassment?
In the 1970s, my mom stored photos of me in a faux woodgrain spiral-bound photo album that was kept in a drawer. Now, we all inadvertently create a digital, searchable childhood legacy for our kids before they even have any say in it. It’s done out of love and pride, of course — but is it OK?
What do you think? Do you share stuff about your kids online?
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Had to re-read this because I wasn’t sure how old your son was and for a moment, felt a mild panic for him in case he was in his early-mid teens and you’d just done the worst thing imaginable for a kid of that age!
He’s only six. The note won’t come back to haunt him on his college applications, job interviews, future relationships or anything else of major importance so I wouldn’t worry about that. If it does he’s in the wrong college, job or relationship for sure.
I think for as long as one stays genuinely within the limits of appropriate, it is not going to be a problem. i share a lot of my kids through ig, blog and twitter, but it is not something that would be offensive to them later on in life.
I set limits. The only naked photos of the kids were sonograms.
We dont share pictures of our son on Facebook, its just something that we agreed on before he was born. We have also asked others not to post pictures of him on social media websites. We’ve had to many instances with friends who’ve had pictures of their children stolen and used on other websites, t-shirts and I’d rather not have to worry about that.
I love posting about my kids! I don’t have twitter, blogs, or other things, only FB. They are the light of my life and I just get so proud of them! Like WPS we don’t post any nude photos of our kids. I have a 6 month old and 9 year old, so with the 6 month old, all of her milestones I will post, like after I have already told my WHOLE family, lol, I will make a comment like “little girl just rolled all the way over!!”, but don’t add pictures, but if she is just looking so darn cute or making a funny face I will snap it and post it. With my son, I post pics of him with his straight A report card or playing basketball or also just because he is being silly. But I never post anything negitive about my kids. When they are driving me nuts, I don’t go “oh gosh, my kids are killing me today!” or post pictures of them crying or whatever….. I just am so proud and want to share whether people “like” it or not! But my son is old enough to understand so he will be like “mom will you take a picture of me and my sissy and share it so people can see how cute we are?” lol! He is adorable!