Skip to main content

Why I restrict social media posts about my kids

As a person of the 21st century, I have found that I rely a lot on my social media accounts to both give and receive information.  Add in my role as a mommy, milspouse and travel blogger, I probably use social media more - and across more platforms - than many others adults my age.  Let's face it: social media is a great way to stay connected with family and friends both near and far.  As the military has moved my family all around the country, I've been able to connect - and reconnect - with numerous people who I would have, before social media, lost touch with. 

While I provide quite a bit of information about my personal life online, I have developed a line which I will not cross when it comes to my children.  I will post - limited - pictures of them, but their names, where they go to school, and teachers' names will not be posted online.  I even go so far as to delete comments and tags which include this identifying information.

As an extremely important part of my life, I enjoy posting many of my children's milestones and adventures.  But, just as I practice OPSEC with my military husband's job, I've also chosen to practice OPSEC with my family.  This isn't because I anticipate a threat but, let's face it, threats are out there.  You hardly need to search the news to find examples of children being taken advantage of, bullied, or worse.  I don't want my social media use now to be any part of how my children are able to grow up.

But, let's take a look at things beyond protecting our children's well-being.  And, I have to admit that, one day, my children won't always look at me as their friend.  I am most likely going to become their adversary, especially during their tween and teen years when they will most likely begin using their own social media platforms.  I have to think in the present how my social media use will impact the future of my children.  What will their friends think of my posts?  What information will my children's future employers be able to find online about them through my updates?  Do I really want so much information about my children available to anyone around the world at any given date now and in the future?

Perhaps I'm being a little too overprotective of my children's online presence.  I haven't yet been able to find any research that shows a negative impact of posting those adorable bath time baby pictures.  But, is that something that I would have wanted my parents to post to the world about me?  Probably not.  I enjoy the fact that social media wasn't around until I was old enough to self-regulate what I wanted and did not want online.  My children won't have this advantage.  So, what do I want my grown children to say about all that I am now posting online about them? 

I want my children to say that I have respected their right to privacy - with the understanding that, in today's world, not everything can remain private.  I want to give my children every opportunity to succeed without my actions causing any future ramifications or negative implications.  For these reasons, I will continue to restrict how I - and others - post information online about my children.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Leadership Mom: SWOT Analysis

In business, leaders often analyze our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats through a SWOT analysis.  So, if we are going to look at our role as moms as being the greatest leadership opportunity to us, let's start with analyzing ourselves and our kids.  Here's the SWOT I developed for my family: Family SWOT Analysis As a doting mother, there are hundreds of strengths that I could put up here for my kids.  Their hugs, kisses, bedtime stories and prayers, the fact that they come to me when they're seeking healing from an injury (physical or emotional), the notes and drawings they make for me, their precious hearts when they try to help me or that they've learned how to use the Keurig to bring me coffee in the morning...I could go on and on. Now, here's the part where we get honest with ourselves.  Yes, we love our kids and we love our family (or, hopefully, most of the time), but we are not perfect.  Nor should we be perfect.  As we analyze oursel

Cybersecurity 101

One of the things that continually amazes me as a parent of young(er) children is their ability to quickly understand technology and its uses.  Not only have my children learned the art of swiping to use different devices, but they've also learned how to access apps, take pictures, answer calls (both phone and Skype), and more.  My children could teach their grandparents a lesson or two on how to use technology. But, as a student of cybersecurity, I have seen a greater need to educate my children - as well as so many others - on the cybersecurity.  This goes beyond posting inappropriate pictures and unfriendly words on social media (although these lessons must also be taught).  This goes into the nature of understanding the benefits and risks of using technology and the privacy lost to it.  The major premise that must be understood in regards to cybersecurity is that information/data is money.  It's value is continually increasing.  We need to secure our information just as w

Why can't they just be friends?

Why can't my kids just be friends?  I must ask myself this question hundreds of times during the week.  I thought that having kids relatively close together was going to be great.  They'd have a playmate and an automatic friend.  However, the truth is that - most of the time - they don't get along.  It's not that they're enemies...it's that they drive each other crazy.  They each want the other one to do what they want to do.  Then, when the other one does what they want, they get mad at them because they wanted to do it themselves. They don't want to share their toys.  Then, they play together only to then get mad and purposefully break the other sibling's toys. They want to get the other one in trouble so that they look like the "good" child and get more rewards.  Then they get upset that the other sibling got them in trouble when they *tattled* on them. At mealtimes, they want to sit where the other one is sitting.  They want the c