My sister had a gorgeous baby boy in February. He’s the cutest wee thing and his laugh makes my heart burst.
You’ll just have to take my word for it though. She’s decided his face will not be on social media.
“I feel it’s his choice and I shouldn’t make that decision for him,” she told me. “Also, there are some weird and awful people on the internet and it freaks me out. I want to protect him. And anyway, people’s baby spam gets so boring…”
It’s a tricky one – particularly for parent bloggers like me.
I take reasonable precautions – I give my children code names, I password-protect the most personal posts and I try to only publish pictures that are appropriate.
I’ve cut back hugely on the instagram pics of my boys. My profile there is open – and I’ve decided to make it less personal and more general. I’ve ‘rebranded’ to EdinburghKim and the focus is now on Edinburgh life. It’s still my Edinburgh life – but I’m thinking more about my audience and what they might be interested in – like recommendations of cafes and days out. Any family pics or videos I put on my insta stories – gone in 24hrs.
Could I take my kids off social media altogether?
I don’t think I could.
I bumped into my friend Sarah in the gym this morning. We hadn’t seen each other for months so the kettlebells were ignored for a good 15 minutes while we caught up.
“I love seeing your pics of the boys,” she said. “You can tell how close they are!”
We met at a baby music class, so I feel like our kids are a big part of our relationship. I love watching her girls grow up, and all the funny things they get up to. I think removing our little ones from social media would really affect the bonds I have with a lot of my friends.
I pushed the boundaries a little bit recently though.
On holiday in Spain, we made a video.
The point of it is to sell our property in Aberdeen – but it’s a bit daft, and both my youngest and my husband feature in it. They both absolutely loved the process and the finished product. KD in particular was a natural on camera and has watched it over and over and over.
One friend who saw it said we should start a channel and my immediate reaction was NO WAY!
That’s a step too far.
If, when they’re old enough, they want to start vlogging then I’ll advise and supervise, but for now I’m going to give them that privacy at least.
Where do your boundaries lie?
My friend Suz and I have been having a very amusing exchange this past fortnight – but today it turned a bit sinister.
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