I know everyone has probably read it already, and I'm not even going to promote it here by posting a link, but there was a woman that wrote a blog post/article about posting things online about your kids. Or rather, her lack of posting. She was saying that when she started having kids, her husband and herself did tons of research and put a lot of thought into it and decided to never post anything about their kids online, EVER.
She goes on to say that it will greatly harm them later in life and that we are stealing their innocence or something . . .
Anyway, it ticked me off.
Does she honestly think that I don't think about my kids each time I post something and how it could affect them in the future? Does she not understand the agonizing that goes on before I share photos and anecdotes with people? Does she really think that every single one of us posting things about our kids is mindless and careless and setting our children up for a terrible, childhood robbed adulthood?
I think not.
Absolutely not.
I really do think hard every time I post something about my kids. Hence why I have not shared the poop pictures that would entail a medically accurate photo of my child's private parts. It's why I second guess myself each time I post pictures in the summer when my children are half naked. It's why I keep them within arms reach of me at all times in public places for fear of some jerk trying to grab them.
Good grief! When will this constant attack on other parents end? We have so much pressure on us to be perfect(see my previous post on that here) that I feel we are being robbed of just living. Our children are being robbed of a childhood because we are always so worried about offending someone else or screwing them up in some form. It's exhausting.
Here is what I think.
I am going to let my children play half naked in the summer and take pictures and share those picture on public forums because it's more important to me that that memory is preserved and shared with the people I love that can't be close in proximity to us, than it is to provide a purely anonymous future for my children.
I want to prepare my kids for this world that we now live in. They need to be educated about the dangers that await them out there in the real world. I don't want to shelter them and protect them to the point that they cannot stand on their own two feet or they become ignorant because I didn't allow anything to happen to them. What does Dory say in Finding Nemo? "If you never let anything happen to him, then nothing would ever happen to him, and that's not much fun for little Harpo." Something along those lines anyway.
The bottom line is this. I will not let some woman with a stranger-danger complex make me feel bad about sharing the joy I have with my children with my friends and family online. Why should I keep that to myself? These children are such a blessing to me and it would be selfish to lock them up away from the world and waste the impact they are already having on it.
I do want the best for my kids and it's human nature to want to protect them, but there is a line.
I will PREPARE my kids to the best of my ability for what this world has for them, but I will not PROTECT them from it. There is a huge difference.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject as well.
And here are a couple precious shots of my blessings for good measure.
He loves to slide!
My climber girl!
Awesome cardboard carriage, right?
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