Many parents start baby books for their children. Looking at my son’s book, I realized he won’t learn as much about his early years through his baby book as he will through my Facebook page and the posts I’ve written for GeekMom.
The other day at my mom’s house, I discovered my baby book. I’ve never seen it before and she warned me not to be disappointed that it wasn’t filled out completely. Having a son of my own, I completely understand that she only filled it in up to my third year of life.
I only learned a few things from my baby book. One of those things was that at age two, I gave my mom a dead frog!
This made me start thinking about my son’s baby book and what he will find when he gets to see it. I admit that I haven’t filled it out 100% and I’ve left out a lot about some of the cuter moments in his life. Then I realized that I have something that my mother didn’t have…Facebook and GeekMom.
I’ve mentioned my son’s reactions in many of my GeekMom posts. He’s helped me review stuff and has given me his input on some topics. Those moments will be on the internet forever.
Like many parents, I brag about my son’s cute and funny moments on Facebook. This is where his real baby book is.
It’s a lot easier to post something on Facebook or Twitter every time he does something verses getting his baby book and writing it all down. Mostly because I can do it all from my phone and in less than a few seconds share it with our family and friends.
After thinking about all the things my son will learn about his cute moments on Facebook, I also started to think about what he will learn about me from my Facebook page.
I have a joke with my husband for when he or my son does something silly: “That’s my next Facebook post.” I’m only half joking because some of it is just too good not to share.
Occasionally, I look back at my Facebook page and some of the posts to see how far I’ve come and see how I need to change my outlook on life. There are several posts about things my family has done and said (“Mommy you’re bossy!” comes to mind). There are pictures and quick posts about my day. I also have a mix of posts about my struggles with anxiety, along with things I’m thankful for every day.
I have some posts that were put there in anger (and I regretted them later). I also have some posts that were just for fun and made me laugh. There are several posts from friends who wanted to make me laugh and shared a funny picture on my wall.
Sometimes I write a post and wonder how many likes it will get. When it doesn’t get any, I feel a little sad, but then I remind myself that life isn’t measured by Facebook likes and shares.
Looking at my photo albums, a lot of my pictures are of me in costume. That will show my son that I have a love of costuming. More of my pictures are of our family having fun in the theme parks and at family events. That will remind him that we did stuff together and when he’s a teenager it will remind him he had fun with us.
Overall, I’m happy with what my son will see. He will see that even though I struggled on some days, I still took time to write a post to say I was thankful for something. There are times I bear my soul on my Facebook page and I hope he sees in those posts, the strength I had to write it.
I try to keep everything real on Facebook and social media and I want my son to remember that it’s okay to be open and it’s okay to be sad. Along with the good posts come some that are bad. We just need to remember who we are and that the number of likes or shares does not determine our worth.
So now I ask you, when your child looks over your Facebook page, what will they see?
It’s important to be yourself on Facebook. My kids will see that I bragged about their triumphs, laughed about simple things in life and shared their achievements. When my 15 year old son asked for a FB account, I was sure to show him my profile. My timeline. My photos. I wanted him to see how to use good judgement when it came to posting things. What it was used for and what he shouldn’t use it for by showing him a few of my friends timelines.
It was my greatest fear that he would see things (not about me) that would change his opinion of people. Such as his Aunt who posts about drinking away her depression. Or his uncle that you would think was a political activist. I reminded him that a post about weather is expected and leave religion and politics alone. Much the same advice you would use when going to a dinner party where a large gathering of people are.
My children will see the same person on FB that they get in real life when looking at my profile. I’m sure they’ll learn a lot about themselves as well.