Airing the dirty laundry, sharing the skeletons in the closest and providing too much information is a thing bloggers are often accused of.
My experience would show otherwise.
Most bloggers give quite a bit of thought to what they think is safe to share and what isn't, and while our children may feature on our blogs and social media channels, look carefully and you will notice the difference in the way many blogger kids are shown online compared to those whose parents just use facebook for personal use.
Take a look at your personal facebook feed, you will see the logo of the school that certain kids go to, you will see parents sharing funny photos (read embarrassing) of their kids. You will also see parents freely sharing the images of kids that are not their kids. It might be a birthday party or a school function and it might be a lovely image but did anyone ask the parents if they minded their kids shared online?
I don't write or share images of other people's kids without the permission of the parents. I don't share the name of the school my kids go to. I don't discuss their personal health issues and I don't ever talk about how they are doing at school, they could be top of the class or receiving remedial help, but that's not the business of the rest of the world.
It could be argued that I sugar coat their lives and show only what I want you to know. And you would be correct. I decide what I want to share, I filter what I think is appropriate for a wider audience, I give considerable thought to the long term effects of what I share might be.
My kids are my life and this blog is a personal blog about my life, it's amazing how much you can write about something without telling everything.
What is it that you would never write about?
I'd like to think that I also extend this privacy to my children on my blog and don't get into too many details, I just write how busy/mess/noisy they are in a generic way! Well I hope I do! Good point about FB personal, although I have very strict privacy settings on mine. :)
ReplyDeletePeople air their dirty laundry on Facebook. Sure there is a place to vent, but I don't need to know everything.
ReplyDeleteIf people want to know how we are doing, they can ask. It's not that hard.
And if I want to share, then I share.
I hear you. I'm so careful with pics - one pic of my kids had a street sign in the (distant) background. It was a pretty generic street name and could have been pretty much anywhere, but I cropped it out anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou make great points in this post, Claire. I really enjoyed reading it. And love the picture of your girls! As for what I'd never write about, thanks to you and this challenge, I've learned a lot this month and will never again write about wishing there were more hours in the day.
ReplyDeleteI've learned a lot about myself this month!!! I try to be careful with pics of my kids, too. Do you know there's a way to strip your photos of their geographic location? Very handy for iPhone pictures especially :)
ReplyDeleteI won't write about ...Schrödinger's cat
ReplyDeleteGood points raised. I believe there is, on some blogs, way too much information shared about the family, friends and private moments - and whilst it might be cathartic for the blogger to tell such stories, does that mean its appropriate (and fair to the people they write about so candidly)? I think a little caution like you (and many others, including myself) apply, is a good choice.
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