E-Children

[hrj]

 This is a totally non-specific appreciation going out to the parents in my social sphere who have given me the great (though not personal) gift of allowing me to watch their children grow up via social media.

I don't have any children myself -- never wanted any, would have made an awful parent. (Though if fortune had dealt me that hand, I would have tried my best.) While my local social circles have included parents of children, I haven't tended to be a spectator to the early years of the process. And the one member of the next generation in my immediate family grew up on the opposite side of the continent (and before significant social media). But I've gotten a lot of joy out of reading about the day to day growing of my friends' infants to toddlers to school kids to...well this particular context hasn't tended to stretch farther than that yet.

It has given me joy. Especially when the parents in question are the sort of hyper-thoughtful, analytic people who use social media to process their own experience of parenthood and therefore allow me an inside view of that experience. If you think I might be talking about you, I probably am.

Thank you.

Comments

[rosefox]

You're welcome. :)

[hrj]

You were definitely one of those "carefully not specified by name" parents, but far from the only one.

[rosefox]

I figured! I owe so much of what I know about parenting to other people's honest parent-blogging; I'm trying to pay it forward.

[kiya]

I should really write more about the kids, but I kind of fell off the journaling wagon...

[katerit]

I enjoy seeing what parents do and what they think about their practice - I think a lot about what I am doing and the choices I make, but I don't write about it a lot. Perhaps I should at times.

[hrj]

There are a lot of factors. A big one is issues of privacy and consent from the other people involved. I can understand why some parents (especially ones who have grown up with social media) might think about the effect on a kid if they some day read blogs about their upbringing.

While I don't have that specific consideration, there are family-related things I never blog about because family members read my blog(s) and even if not, people who read my blog(s) know some of my family members personally.

[threadwalker]

You are a part of my kids' lives. You are, specifically, Miss H. The author. Theater goer. Smart friend of family. I know I always appreciate your insights. You've talked me off the ledge a few times. So the thannks is mutual.