Wow, I haven't written here in a long time! I've been meaning to, but life just gets in the way sometimes.
So for the last couple of Sundays, I have been helping my Dad clean out his basement so he can redo it. It takes an entire afternoon to get a room clear, so we have really good talks during. We talk a lot about parenting because I parent like he did. The things that I've told him just boggles his mind. But it got me thinking about my parenting style versus almost everyone else's. I like to think of myself as "old school" in a lot of ways. One of the ways I don't necessarily think that way is about Facebook. There was an article (that I have yet to actually read...oops!) where the headline really got to me and got me thinking. It was about a teenager who had just gotten her own Facebook and when she friended her Mom, she saw all the posts that her mother had been posting....about her. The parts that I saw said that she felt embarrassed by it.
I post daily about my life as a stay at home mom and my thoughts. I've never thought twice about it! But now that Isabelle is getting to the age where she understands a lot, that article really made me stop and think about the pictures and things I've been posting about her and Kensi and William. To me, Facebook is about keeping connected with family and letting them see how we're doing. It's also about helping and giving advice to those who are maybe just starting to have kids, or went from 1 to 3 in a short time like I did. It's letting people in on what I'm doing. My life has always been an open book, maybe sometimes more than it should be. I've always felt that if you're friends with me on there, then you really want to know what's going on in my life. If not, well then I guess just unfriend me.
So, one day I sat her down and showed her Facebook and gave her a kind of rundown of what it was. I try and ask if it's ok that I show people some pictures of her. She said it was. I have absolutely no idea if it'll ever make a difference down the road, but at least she's aware that other people are seeing pictures of her. She doesn't seem bothered by it now, and hopefully she never will be.
I thought about deleting Facebook, but we seem to now live in a world where people don't really call each other or send letters anymore. Hell, I haven't actually had a full conversation that wasn't on Facebook with my best friend since the middle of March. We used to talk damn near every day. I, myself, am really bad at calling my brother's that live in different states to catch up because after working in call centers for nearly a decade, I'm not a big fan of talking on the phone. I still send letters to my Grandma in IA, but not very often anymore...mostly at Christmas time. I really should get a letter out to her soon.
I don't delete Facebook because if I do, then I would lose touch with A LOT of friends and family. I really enjoy Facebook for that reason so I keep it. It's one technology that I really enjoy. I like that she can see pictures of her cousins that she doesn't get to see all the time, or her Aunts and Uncles. She stops me a lot to look at a picture or video that caught her eye. It makes me feel better posting things if she knows about it and knows what I'm talking about lol buuut I'm not excited for her asking for a phone and such.....that can wait until she's like 30!!
