I always have an excuse for not writing more frequently. Today's is that I believe I'm coming down with a mild form of social Tourette's syndrome. More and more lately I seem to say or do, impulsively, the most inappropriate things. Of course I mean no offense when these incidents occur but they leave me turning them over in my head for days, wondering if my audience clung to how wrong what I did or said was as much as I am. Honestly, I just thought of giving you an example and I was too mortified to even 'fess up.
This extends to the written word. I have probably already offended you and for that, I am sorry. The things I feel most compelled to expound upon lately are definitely things that should not be written down and made public. They are the kinds of things you might not even talk to your best friends about unless you were trying to make them laugh at you. Toilet humor has taken custody of my brain.
Whenever this happens and all I can think about is how I could wax eloquent about what happens in the bathroom or something of the like, I think about Facebook. Reasonable jump? I think so. Here's why: with no intended offense (but, as mentioned, that's probably a moot point by now) to all the wonderful parents out there, when you post about your child potty training couldn't you change the settings to only share with your family and immediate circle? What is this generation of children going to be like, having their every intimate move documented for the world without their consent? This is a legitimate concern of mine. I am truly curious about the long term sociological impact of social media on youth. As adults, we have some level of choice and consent regarding the information we share but kids, either the ones whose parents are posting about their uti's or the ones who have grown up not knowing any differently, are going to have an extremely different social development that any other generation. In a lot of ways I'm sure this is great and these kids will be way smarter and all. But they may also end up in with some funky social fallout. All I can think of is that they might end up in adult diapers. I think that's another example of my problem, manifesting itself.
So anyway, that's my rant for today. Thoughts?
Yeah, I try not to talk about my kids too much on Facebook in part because of that. I have a few friends on there who post on FB about potty-training a lot, and my thought more than anything, is "I don't care!!" One or two updates every now and then would be fine but not a couple times a week! The oversharing could have a spillover effect into the next generation, most definitely.
ReplyDeleteI swear I'm not trying to be a smartass, but how much info is too much re: potty training? I'd never post pics or even adjectives, but what about, "He just pooped in the potty for the first time!" Or, "We're officially done with training!" Or, "OMG she had an accident at Target today"?
ReplyDeleteI apologize for anything I've posted in the past that's grossed you out. Being a parent really lowers your threshold for that stuff. I wish it didn't. It's like I forgot the language.
1. You are not even a lead offender in this arena.
Delete2. It's less about being grossed out and more about boundaries.
3. To answer your question, in my not-so-humble opinion, the officially done line is a-ok. Other vague references are acceptable, too. But I think the poop line is best for an inner circle. I'm torn on the Target accident because if it's a funny story, I'm in but if we are just talking about bathroom habits, I'm out.
4. Thoughts?
PS. I also recognize as a non-kidder that this might change for me at some point. However, I think about boundaries so much at work that some things might just be ingrained. That being said, I think I posted a cat puke picture once because I thought it would be funny to offend people:)