These days, most kids have a social media footprint by the time they reach one…. one day that is. Many parents are quick to plaster pictures of their baby all over social media and blogs the moment it’s born, and while of course this is totally their decision and I respect that wholeheartedly, I’ve decided it’s not something I will be doing.
So while I will be writing about babies, family life, and parenting on the blog, I won’t be sharing any pictures of my little ones face. I can promise there will be lots of cute outfit pictures (seriously baby fashion is the CUTEST!), photos taken from a distance, and maybe even one newborn photo (as let’s face it, pretty much all newborns look alike!), but as he grows you will never see his face.
I’ve always kept things quite private on the blog, never really specifying where I live, my full name, or who my family are. While I’ve chosen to put a lot of details of my own life online, I’m also extremely aware that there are a lot of rather…. interesting…. people out there, and I don’t want everyone knowing every little detail. I also don’t want photos of my precious child ending up in the wrong people’s hands.
My family are very private people, so I’ve never shared anything about them online, as I just don’t think it’s my place to do so. The same goes with my baby. I don’t feel like it’s my place to share images or private details about him online. When he is grown, I don’t want there to be hundreds of pictures of him all over the internet already – if he chooses to that himself when he is older and responsible to make that decision, then that’s totally fine. But I don’t think it’s fair that I make that call for him.
I’d love to know what your thoughts are on sharing images of your children online. Is this something you are happy to do, or do you prefer them to have their privacy? Let me know in the comments below.
I think you just have to do whatever it is that you guess will make your child happiest in their life! It’s something that nobody can know for sure and everybody will assume something different is going to make their child happy – doing your best is what matters 🙂 Everyone even has a different outlook on what their main role is when bringing up their kids – to try to mainly make them happy, to try to mainly bring them up to be independent, to bring them up to be very well educated or even to simply keep them alive!!! Your baby is your baby and as long as you’re trying to be a good mother, that’s what counts.
I don’t have any kids, but I think I’d see my main role as keeping my daughter/son happy throughout their life. With that in mind, I’d guess that that my kid would be happiest by feeling loved, so I’d share their picture online with trusted people and in places I trust the pictures will be safe from weirdos. My blog isn’t exactly popular, so I’d probably feel safe to share their picture on my blog and MAYBE the odd, rare picture on my Instagram – although I’d be careful to keep some personal, private information back.
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I completely agree, the only thing that’s important is that your child is happy and you do your absolute best. I just feel like people are so quick to share images and information these days, and once it’s out there you can’t get it back. Of course, it’s each to their own and everyone is totally entitled to their own opinion on the topic – there are lots of parents more than happy to share their kids lives online and I definitely don’t knock them for that, but it’s just not for me 🙂
Yeah I’ve had a few thoughts here and there about it and my boyfriend is also a personal kinda person and not particularly into social media or anything like that (gamer 😅) and think I’ll likely go the save route
I also don’t want to annoy people on my Facebook/fill my Facebook with baby stuff so will keep it probably to a minimum…
Ah haha I just went on a major shopping spree as I found some super comfy pants from pagani and is suitable for work (still got that going for another few months) and I think (hopefully) able to still fit post-pregnancy! They are unbelievably comfy (and stretchy 😄)
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That’s such a good point about not overdoing it on Facebook too! We all know people who tend to go a little OTT on there with the baby pictures, right?! haha 🙂 Ooh I never thought to look in Pagani for clothes during this pregnancy, they have such gorgeous clothes too, it sounds like the pants you found were a total score!
What I find alarming is that people don’t realize that once you put a photo on the internet it’s no longer yours. Even if you post it for a private group on Facebook, even if your blog/Instagram isn’t popular, once you put it out there, it is no longer yours. I’m extremely careful what I put out there of myself, let alone of my child! (I don’t have any yet, but as far as my partner and I are concerned, our children will have next to no online presence)
I’m actually super passionate about this topic and I’m so happy that at least some people are sensible as well! I see so much of it on my Facebook wall, some people share everything, full names, dates of birth, times of birth, birth weight, new photos everyday etc etc… all I can see is possible identity theft, bullying when older (kids can be cruel and smart and you never know if a baby photo found online could set off massive bullying later) and the biggest reason: your child is a human being with legal rights, children can sue their parents for things like public humiliation !
I’d find it horrifying if my whole life from birth was plastered all over internet and I had no say in it. I wish people just were more sensible. The bottom line is, I got to choose what to publish of myself on the internet, so my children get to choose too.
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I completely agree! Anything online really isn’t safe and you have no idea where it ends up and who is looking at it. It’s such a scary thought really! That’s also a very good point about the baby details too, as identify theft is such a huge thing now and full names and birthdays are identifying details for a lot of places!
I’m just so thankful the internet wasn’t around when I grew up and that all my embarrassing baby photos are in an album tucked away at the back of the cupboard somewhere rather than plastered all over the internet for everyone to see haha! It definitely sounds like we have the same opinion on this topic! 🙂