A Long Overdue Explanation

Today marks a milestone of my blogging, since this is blog post number ten.

Now, I’ve been asked by many around me and many people who have been reading my blogs or following me on social media why I don’t put pictures or videos of Melody.

I want to explain but first let me make it clear that this is a personal decision that Mario and I made, together.

Explanation:

It is very clear that everything nowadays goes on social media, and as a result, every moment of a person’s day gets archived on the internet.

It’s so cute when you see your friends’ children or even strangers’ children all over social media. Most people react as to how cute and adorable these kids are, which let’s be honest is my personal view on the subject when it comes to other peoples kids.

Once I got pregnant, however, I started thinking how cute pictures of my future baby are going to be and how I can’t wait to be able to share her with everyone near or far.

Then, I started to realize how dangerous this could be as well.

Let’s be real here.

The internet is no small innocent place and just because they say that the video deletes within 24 hours, does not mean that that is the case.

There are apps now that give you the ability to download other peoples stories, giving strangers access to your footage.

There is also the Dark Web — and no this is not some MR. ROBOT conspiracy — it is real.

Not many people know about it but this is a place in the internet world that normal people do not have access to.

This place is sadly where there is child pornography, child trafficking and other sick and unforgivable things.

People may say I am over exaggerating, but I am not ready to expose that kind of stuff to my daughter.

There is such a thing as privacy and wanting to keep a few things to a minimum.

Maybe one day, I will put a picture of the three of us on this lovely upcoming holiday, or maybe not — you never know.

I just don’t see the need in having the whole world see exactly what this child is doing at every second. There is no need to see the kid being breast fed, having a bath or being potty trained.

If you are one of those people who have only about 100 followers who happen to be your closest friends and family and you know exactly who each and every one of those people are, then that may be a different story.

But let’s be honest you don’t find instagram accounts that only have that small amount of following.

These are very intimate private things.

Our parents used to video tape them to have records of our journey in life and all the steps we took to become who we are.

Nowadays, we film our children and put on social media and forget these moments ever existed.

We film our children in 10 or 15 second videos and pray that we caught the moment instead of having the whole video and seeing the process happen.

We are also not living in the moment anymore since we are watching everything through the screen instead of through our eyes.

I’ve even had some people complain that I haven’t sent a private photo in a while, and my answer is no I haven’t because I’ve been experiencing her every smile, sound and laugh to the fullest, and I don’t want my focus to be on whether or not I captured it so that others can see it.

We are her parents and as such we get to experience these things first, and everyone else gets to see them second.

I think we need to take a step back and go back to having at least some part of our lives and thoughts be private.

And if your family and friends claim that it isn’t fair we want to see the child, then you can kindly say either come and see the child in person or I can send you a photo in private.

Again, I am not saying other peoples ways are wrong.

I just choose to believe that there is a different way to go about showing your friends and family your children, as well as a different way to get followers on your social media then to expose the little ones to the dark world of the internet.

Privacy is a privilege that we should give our children.

They will get used to seeing themselves all over the internet giving them a head start to becoming just as addicted technology as we are if not more.

And, let’s be honest the entire world now is addicted — why not break that cycle and go back to the ways things were when we were kids…

All the big businesses in the world seem to be going after our nostalgia, I say, why not go after it ourselves, in our daily lives.