There’s a distressing identity theft trend going on in the world of young parents on Facebook. Their accounts are being hacked into and entirely taken over by their babies! People who once used to post about interesting things going on in the world (or, at the very least, some gritty details of last night’s rendezvous) have been reduced to status updates on teething, defecation patterns and (drumroll please…) the miracle of rolling over! I think my friend Jen said it best while scrolling through her list of Friends and seeing mostly toothless, drooling smiles – “When did I become friends with so many babies?”
So, to my dear Facebook friends:
I get that the baby is the joy of your life. As it should be! But you had a life before that kid, and it was full of friends – like me – who still want to know what you’re up to, who you’ve become, whether you think it’s Tebow-time. Facebook is about sharing your life with friends and family. And of course, most of that is going to be centered around your baby now. But don’t ever forget that you were a person before you were a parent, and there are people out there who miss that person. So even if it’s something as lame as your feelings on the latest Kardashian divorce, I want to hear it. We all do. (Well, sort of).
And just a word of warning: If your posts start to become a photo of the baby accompanied by first-person narration from the baby’s point of view (e.g., “I am SO excited Aunt Cassie is taking me to the park today!”), we reserve the right to un-Friend you. It’s for your own good.
Maybe Lady Liz is blogging her way through the decision of whether to create her own Cheerio-encrusted ankle-biters, or remain Childfree. You can follow her through the ups and downs at http://www.MaybeBabyMaybeNot.com.
AMEN! I couldn’t have said it better myself. I find more and more that my friends become so focused on their kids that they lose who they were before the kids. I love them and I generally love their kids too, but I want to hear what’s going on with them and not just their kids. I’ve been contemplating just hiding everyone who does this, but haven’t yet. Maybe that will be on the list of things to do today now!
DITTO!
Great post! Hope to see more!
This is very funny, and sadly, very true. It then starts to border on Mommy entitledness where because they have children – very one must accomodate. Standing in line for the bathroom, “oh can we go ahead” – because someone’s 3 yr old is dancing with their legs crossed. Or the HUGE strollers that barrel down the grocery aisle and block the entire soup section. – Whoops, I guess this is a day late for Wednesday.
I wonder if treated my dogs on facebook the way they treat their babies – would someone recommend I get help?
I was molested a lot recently by people’s cat-pictures on fb. They seem worse to me than the parents. At least in my circle of friends, parents tended to get an ironic remark after the ump-teenth baby video (not even always from me) and got the point eventually. But what to do about the cat – lovers…
I’m glad you all liked the post! Mina, I would definitely be one of those crazy Facebook cat ladies if I didn’t keep myself in check. I have to remind myself over and over again that the only other person who finds their habits so charming is my husband.
This has been one of my biggest pet peeves recently. Where did all my friends go, who were funny and supportive and had thoughts on the future of this world? I miss deeper conversations. Where are those women who were once wives? I’ll bet their husband’s miss them too!
This is so true! I wish my friends would realize I don’t find all of this as fascinating as they do.
This post made me laugh. Out Loud. Thanks I needed that.