Facebook wasn’t around when my siblings and I were kids. There was no myspace, no email, no forums, no chat rooms. There were no mobile internet, there weren’t even any mobile phones.
Mothers groups met face to face, conversations happened in person or on a phone connected to the wall.
When my sister was born my great grandmother sent me a telegram.
It’s for this very reason that I am wary of what I post about my children on Facebook and the language that I use.
Yes I post that I’m tired, yes I post that they’re teething, yes I post potentially embarrassing photos of them.
I never write that I hate them/want to hurt them/don’t like them/want to give them away.
Do I vent? Yes! Either on phone to a trusted family member or friend, or in a way that cannot be connected with my name or theirs by a search engine.
Why? Well who hasn’t googled their own name before? And who knows what technology will be able to do when my kids are adults and what they’ll be able to find online attached to their name.
This technology is still relatively new.
As an adult if I googled my name and stuff written by my mum when I was a baby came up and it was all a big rant about how much she didn’t want me, I was a mistake, she hated me, well I’d be devastated.
I wouldn’t be upset if she said she was tired, struggling, grumpy, worn out etc because parenting is hard work.
I guess my point is I vent, I struggle, I need an outlet, but all my Facebook statuses go through a ‘filter.’. I ask myself the following question.
How would I feel if this were written about me?
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