If You Don’t Want Your Parenting Judged, Don’t Post About It On Facebook

judgy mom

We are living in a time where so many aspects of our lives are digitally documented. It is not necessarily a negative thing but it does cause some blurring of lines. It seems easy to forget that Facebook and Instagram are more than just online scrapbooks for our enjoyment. They are an interactive experience where anything you put out there is ripe for the picking by anyone lucky enough to be on your friend list. This goes double for parenting posts because we all know everyone loves to judge parents. I have seen moms and dads get themselves in a twist when a relative makes a comment questioning a parenting choice and all I can think is if you don’t want your parenting judged, don’t post about it on Facebook.

The reason I say this is that I feel like it’s almost daily that I scroll through my feed and see a post from one of my friends that has devolved into a parenting debate in the comments. Someone will post about baby-wearing and how great it is and then, there is the defensive “well, I don’t do that- why don’t you try a stroller?” and so on and so forth. I have seen full-out Facebook fights play out about cloth-diapering, formula versus breast-feeding, vaccines versus anti-vaxx, private versus public school and yes- whether or not to let kids use Facebook. On Facebook. So meta.

There is nothing wrong with sharing this information on Facebook or Instagram but there is a caveat. You have to be prepared to potentially deal with judgment and criticism. There have been times where I have seen “I need advice but please, no judging” on a Facebook post about parenting. Ok, fair enough, most people should respect that- but you need to know that some never will. Some people just love to judge or be contrary. Some people suck at following directions. Some people quite literally cannot help the diarrhea falling out of their mouths. And I suppose some people don’t understand why you would post something if all you want is nodding heads and up-votes. Sharing and starting conversations is arguably one of the main purposes of social media and I’m sure some don’t see the sense in posting something if they didn’t want to continue discussing it.

That said, post all the details you want about Junior’s latest punishment or whether you want to give extended nursing a shot but don’t expect the conversation to be one-sided. Putting that information into a post that other people will read means that it is possible that you will be judged. As long as you don’t mind that, post away. If you would rather avoid explaining to your Aunt Edna why your toddler is still rear-facing in his car-seat then don’t talk about it on social media.

(Image: Alex5550/Shutterstock)

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