Just A Note To Say: Nikola Edition
Nov. 12th, 2022 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigidI know some of you have been following me for a long time, since before I even had a kid.
That kid is now 13, and asked me a few years previously not to discuss them on FaceBook unless I asked first. I had already begun phasing out blogging about them. I do mention them on twitter sometimes but twitter is so fast paced that those mentions are just a few droplets in a fire hose.
I took down that baby blog about a year ago and am eventually going to go through and lock posts here as well.
Anyway. I have an amazing kid. Any mentions of said kid are going to be entirely about me (for instance, a recent post about fertility issues), a minor aspect of a larger thing (for instance, I had a bunch of errands to do which involved dropping them off at a friend's house), or something posted with their explicit permission.
It used to be easier for parents to blog about their kids knowing that the primary makeup of their audience was other parents, and that these blogs could be helpful (I gained some very specific valuable knowledge that has helped me in parenting) and cute and sweet and, sometimes, an example of what not to do. Even with the blogging landscape having changed, shifted to instagram and tiktok and youtube and choreographed family dance routines and stuff... parents post stuff about their kids and with their kids that isn't seen just by other parents any more. It's seen by the entire world and that includes their kids' friends and teachers and neighbors.
It's a real invasion of privacy.
And one of the big things is fifteen years ago? People largely just didn't think about that. It wasn't recognized as a concern for the most part. But now? People talk about it. Kids who were (or still are) involved speak out about it. And folks keep on doing it.
So many people HATED Dooce and Amalah and Finslippy and some other "mommy bloggers" for "monetizing their kids" but it was absolutely nothing like what happens now, and most of the influencers doing this shit don't get anywhere near the push back... maybe because so many of them are more aspirational?
I miss seeing facebook memories pop up something else about Nikola... I think the most recent entries were from 2017? There's so much to forget, and those little fb entries... some just a sentence or two long... can trigger some powerful memories. I guess I could post them in entirely private/locked posts but... I don't know.
Anyway, I don't personally know anyone who treats their kids like that, and I love updates about other peoples' kids, and maybe I'll post some stuff that's locked but I've pretty much gotten out of the habit of writing about my wonderful, charming, very tall, hilarious child except in... brace yourself... an actual facts paper journal. (It's a calendar with spaces for daily entries/to-do lists and I can write about a paragraph and also I put stickers all over the place.)
Much love to all you parents and guardians and cool aunties/uncles and grandparents and assorted other caregivers out there.
That kid is now 13, and asked me a few years previously not to discuss them on FaceBook unless I asked first. I had already begun phasing out blogging about them. I do mention them on twitter sometimes but twitter is so fast paced that those mentions are just a few droplets in a fire hose.
I took down that baby blog about a year ago and am eventually going to go through and lock posts here as well.
Anyway. I have an amazing kid. Any mentions of said kid are going to be entirely about me (for instance, a recent post about fertility issues), a minor aspect of a larger thing (for instance, I had a bunch of errands to do which involved dropping them off at a friend's house), or something posted with their explicit permission.
It used to be easier for parents to blog about their kids knowing that the primary makeup of their audience was other parents, and that these blogs could be helpful (I gained some very specific valuable knowledge that has helped me in parenting) and cute and sweet and, sometimes, an example of what not to do. Even with the blogging landscape having changed, shifted to instagram and tiktok and youtube and choreographed family dance routines and stuff... parents post stuff about their kids and with their kids that isn't seen just by other parents any more. It's seen by the entire world and that includes their kids' friends and teachers and neighbors.
It's a real invasion of privacy.
And one of the big things is fifteen years ago? People largely just didn't think about that. It wasn't recognized as a concern for the most part. But now? People talk about it. Kids who were (or still are) involved speak out about it. And folks keep on doing it.
So many people HATED Dooce and Amalah and Finslippy and some other "mommy bloggers" for "monetizing their kids" but it was absolutely nothing like what happens now, and most of the influencers doing this shit don't get anywhere near the push back... maybe because so many of them are more aspirational?
I miss seeing facebook memories pop up something else about Nikola... I think the most recent entries were from 2017? There's so much to forget, and those little fb entries... some just a sentence or two long... can trigger some powerful memories. I guess I could post them in entirely private/locked posts but... I don't know.
Anyway, I don't personally know anyone who treats their kids like that, and I love updates about other peoples' kids, and maybe I'll post some stuff that's locked but I've pretty much gotten out of the habit of writing about my wonderful, charming, very tall, hilarious child except in... brace yourself... an actual facts paper journal. (It's a calendar with spaces for daily entries/to-do lists and I can write about a paragraph and also I put stickers all over the place.)
Much love to all you parents and guardians and cool aunties/uncles and grandparents and assorted other caregivers out there.
