Facebook; the world of over exposure, over posting and vulnerability. You wake up and the first thing you do is grab your phone, open that little “F” app and scroll, scroll, scroll until you finally reach the highest point of boredom. Your feet hit the ground, you stretch, take a shower and brush your teeth. But wait, it’s time to check Facebook again. Surprisingly, there’s 20 more updates to scroll through. Endless. Exhausting. Addicting.
We have a powerful tool tucked away in these handheld devices that very rarely leave our sides. We share. We laugh. We judge. We snicker. We smile. We cry. Dare I say it, we stalk. We do all of that in 5 minutes then head back to reality (the people in front of us, behind us and that guy whose been trying to get your attention).
I think most will agree with me when I say that the most annoying posts (aside from the drama queens) are the endless posts of babies. There’s an app called unbaby me for crying out loud. I get it, another snot nosed kid with food smeared on his face. You’re all thinking, “Get out. Get a life. Get a job.” Harsh.
I used to be one of those people, that is until i had a snot nosed kid of my own. You know what; I birthed a child, he’s really friggin cute and I’m beyond proud of our accomplishments. I quit my job to be a stay at home mom and guess what? I still take lunch breaks (No, not the ones where you go out with friends and have a few beers between meetings). My lunch breaks are taken when he goes down for his second nap. Sometimes that nap is 2 hours, most times it’s 25 minutes. My lunch break is called short by soulful cries. This is the hardest job I’ve ever done. Ever. Most people clock out at the end of the day, not stay at home moms. (And working mothers, don’t get me started there. Rockstars.)
One of your ads finally went live, awesome, you share it on Facebook. My baby learned how to situp, awesome, I share on Facebook. You’re stuck at work for 15 hours again, cue the status. I’m up at 3:00am with a teething baby, cue the status. A photo of your dog giving you a high five? A photo of my baby rolling over.
Get it?
We’re proud and we boast. Not just moms. But you too. I wake up on Sunday morning and see tons of drunken Saturday night regret photos. I roll my eyes. You wake up on Sunday afternoon and see “Happy Sunday” from 15 babies. You roll your eyes.
We’re judging you too.
We teach our babies how to sleep (yeah, babies have to be TAUGHT how to sleep), we teach them how to eat from a spoon, we teach them how to roll over and sit up and crawl and walk and say mama. WE. ARE. PROUD.
I’m not asking you to like our photos, but stop making us feel bad for sharing our joy with you. We see you do it everyday, all day. I’m a mom and I love my child. I post about him not because he’s my only pal, but because he’s the one who makes my heart tick.
Oh look, a photo of my baby. Isn’t he cute? He’s sitting in a swing; I taught him that.
Jacqueline Leigh 