Chronicles of This Mama

Our family sometimes struggles with social media. Our kids don’t have social media and Hubs and I don’t always have the same views about social media. It’s one of the rare things we don’t always see eye to eye on. I’m notorious for deleting and freezing my social media accounts. If I notice it’s the first thing I’m checking in the morning and the last thing I’m doing at night I recognize the need for some detox time. I don’t like posting pictures of my kids, especially their faces. I avoid posting multiple times a day. I don’t rely on post likes or comments to validate my feelings on a topic. If I post something that isn’t sharing a local event it’s more for myself, so I can see it in memories a year from now. I post things that make me smile to hopefully pass that light on to someone else.

How do you navigate social media with young kids who have been exposed to YouTube and likes and comments since day one? How do you monitor and keep them safe? How do you measure whether or not it’s impacting their own self worth? How do you manage cell phone use when parents are often on their cell as part of their job either texting or taking calls? Sometimes I’m not even on my phone for me, I’m juggling my kids activities between the 4 or so parent apps and updates. It’s a total nightmare.

I wish I had some answers. Our family is just approaching all of this with our oldest. It’s been a debate and discussion amongst hubs and myself but I think it’s about setting clear boundaries. Having a plan and holding one another to it – or everyone to it if it’s not just the adults handling social media and cell usage.

Snapchat is scary. Instagram is scary. I worry so much that these accounts open up too many different doors for predators to approach my children. I’m not oblivious to the dangers. I monitor what I can and if it’s not able to be monitored it’s not in our house. I feel it’s my job to keep them safe, in my opinion that’s responsible parenting.

All of this to ask – what works for your family? We are just broaching all of this and tend to be on the stricter side of it all. I know that. I don’t know that our way is right for any other family outside of our own and I’m willing to test some things but I’m not willing to get this wrong. There is so much at stake – a dumb post by the 15 year old has become the dumb post that keeps said 15 year old off of teams, out of rooms they dreamed of being in, and missing out on jobs as an adult. It’s gotten so heavy so quickly.