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Don’t Freak Out on Me but I Want Mom Bloggers to Read This GOMI Post

I know, some of you will never read a thing I write again because GOMI has been described as a hate site or a bully site. They’ve been no friend to some of the people who I consider to be friends and colleagues (oh god do bloggers have colleagues? That’s weird). This morning I was directed to something at GOMI and they have it completely right there.

Apparently a mom blogger had her child in the emergency room for stitches and decided to instagram the moment where her husband held the child down for the doctors. She also talked about him flirting with the nurses, him being the child, which made me want to retch.

Last night was probably the hardest day of being a parent for me to date. Little sailor took a nasty spill in the kitchen and needed 5 stitches on his forehead. All the other parents out there who have spent lots of time in doctors offices and hospitals, I salute you. Sailor was a champ and was flirting with every nurse there. The kid is relentless and amazing. Starting 2014 off with house floods and ER trips, piece of cake. It can only get better :) Instagram

Can we talk about the fact that toddler children don’t flirt? Is there any mother of a little girl who would ever say that their toddler daughter was “flirting with” adult men? Why is it okay for mothers to say that little boys are going on dates or flirting? Nevermind that it’s okay, why am I the only person who seems to recoil from these women in horror? Make me feel less alone please.

The sexy baby thing isn’t really the problem. Obviously this lady and I see parenting a little differently but GOMI points out something that all of us mom bloggers should pay attention to. Why do we Instagram our children in vulnerable moments? I know why we take pictures. I know why we pick up our phones. I don’t necessarily know why we feel a need to share them with strangers. Do we need validation that we are good or even just competent parents? When our blogs are wildly popular (which does come with an expiration date) do we get addicted to accolades or do we just believe our own hype and think that every bump and scrape is breaking news?

How much is too much? And why is mom blogging about kids and not about moms?

I’ve been guilty of overexposing my children and our lives. We all have. So I’m not going to go out and say that this Instagram photo couldn’t have been mine in another setting but I’m wondering how mindful all of us are about our children and their right to a private life?

Also, what’s the point?

14 thoughts on “Don’t Freak Out on Me but I Want Mom Bloggers to Read This GOMI Post”

  1. I don’t think it’s mom bloggers in general for the overshare. I have many non-blogger friends that have posted pictures of their kids in hospitals, while sick, while hurt. Just last week my nephew broke his arm, and my sister took a photo of him when he was on a lot of meds for the pain. I quickly stopped her and said she better not think about putting that photo anywhere when my nephew was in pain. She didn’t mean anything wrong by it, but it’s just become so normal for us to document and share EVERYTHING. I think it’s a societal problem, not just blogger targeted.

  2. My son needed stitches this summer, and I was so concerned and worried it didn’t occur to me to Instagram a pic of him with the S-hook swing set chain completely stuck in his armpit (like a fish.) My husband did a quick Skype with me while he was waiting for the doc to come him and stitch him up. As blogging has progressed, and as my kids have gotten older, I’m increasingly aware of what I publish and say about my entire family. This no-holds-barred exposure can go too far. My children deserve something resembling privacy, too. I ask my daughter before I write something or publish something about her. I know what embarrasses my son and leave it out. Common sense needs to kick in eventually. These are your children, not your side show.

  3. I absolutely loath when people specialize babies and toddlers! Babies do not flirt and I hate the pairing up as well. My kid will date your kid and so one. Ugh!

  4. I find myself hardly sharing pictures of my kids or sharing updates on the daily… I’m trying to just live in the moment and not being addicted to my phone. Sometimes for more serious things it’s nice to have a support group of friends to help you along the way… but I guess I do those types of moments on my personal facebook wall so it’s not public.

  5. I understand your points completely. I personally don’t take pictures of my children when they are vulnerable/in pain. It is not my job to document those moments, it’s my job to support my child. Mom blogging should be about “mom”. I write about me – my experiences, how my kids effect me, how I see the world… Me me me. My narcissism protects my children’s privacy. I’m not sure if “mom blogging” should be about documenting our children’s lives… I believe they have a word for that – it’s called scrapbooking.

  6. Funny, I was just thinking about this today. My toddler son is sick at home with a fever and for a brief moment, I considered sharing a picture of him looking sick. Still incredibly cute, but sick as a dog. I don’t know why. To show that he’s still the cutest ever, regardless of circumstances? To publicly bitch about my long day and sleepless night? Just to have a new post on Instagram? I hadn’t even seen the controversy over Bleubird’s photo above but I just thought to myself – why would I share this with the world? How could I share this with the world when it’s so intimate? This is his moment, not mine. You may see tonight’s dinner, but you won’t see my little man suffering.

  7. It’s a hard moment to watch. I’ve been there myself and it crossed my mind “this is a great blog moment” then feel sick at myself for thinking about then when my kid needed me.

  8. I only take photos of when my children are vulnerable like this only because my neighbor is a dear friend and a physician. We don’t post to Instagram or FB when in the moment. We snap a photo, send to the doc to gauge severity of ER or Urgent Care or can we do the garage trauma special where we have pooled a First Aid kit that rivals an ER. I think this is some way to sensationalize and specialize their other than mundane life for readership. Sad really to capitalize on children in their vulnerable moments. It would be the same as if they [children] would walk in and snap photos of parents in compromising moments and then post “HA karma is a bitch Mom and Dad” just for shock effect to get likes or hits.

  9. I am admittedly guilty of snapping pics while I’ve been curled up with my son in the ER, or when my kids have been sick. It hasn’t gone on my Instagram (which I’ve actually pretty much stopped using, but I don’t know why), and it doesn’t go on my blog’s FB page. But it goes on my personal FB page all the same, which isn’t a whole lot better…Sharing it with 600 of my “closest friends”? Thanks for the reminder to re-evaluate.

  10. I think it’s despicable the way some parents post about their kids. I think it’s wrong to do it on blogs, on Facebook, on Instagram, or on any other social media forum It is especially wrong when the children are vulnerable. Parents need to remember that once on the net, it will remain FOREVER. These photos not only hurt their children, they could follow them around the rest of their lives. I am very careful what I post about child. I rarely post photos and if I do, they are very generic. Photos can also be stolen and duplicated and end up somewhere you don’t want them to be too. I think parents need to be a better job of protecting their children in this regard. It’s ok to take a phone, but it’s not ok to share it like that.

  11. I rarely post pics of my kids, even on FB, which I view as another public platform rather than one with a veil a privacy. I don’t like seeing pictures of anyone’s kids at their most vulnerable. A couple of years back a mom I know posted a video of her very scared daughter getting an IV prior to surgery. A) why the hell would she “comfort” her daughter from behind a camera?, B) why would she make that video public? I mean, who wants to see that and why a parent expose their child so publicly at such a moment?

  12. Stop judging and just do you. Do you really need a whole blog post to Shane another parent? Worry about you and your family and if you don’t like someone else’s picture, don’t look.

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