As Mothers our lives are busy, chaotic, and dictated by the needs of little people, with hardly any time to decompress pent-up frustration or just plain old exhaustion before the next day starts all over again. Enter social media!

Our social feeds can sometimes feel like a friend, one that you can pick up with any time who will keep you entertained and help you escape from the humdrum of everyday life. Often we get so close to this friend that we start to let them in on the intricacies of our daily challenges and feelings seeking an outlet to help ease the intensity of parenting. It feels good to get support from our community and understanding for where we’re at, especially when we don’t have time to physically meet up with our village.

The only difficulty with this is that social media is in fact NOT our friend – it’s a warehouse where every digital interaction is stored for all of time. Yes, ALL of time. It doesn’t care if you are sad, or frustrated, and it can’t make your tough day better, or your child less challenging.

That post you’ve just put on Facebook detailing your toddler’s latest potty training failure, or your preschoolers’ meltdown in Checkers, or your teenager’s gross bedroom or attitude mudslide, will always be there. Social media is lovely, but in 2, or 5, or 10 years when your child enters into the great world of social media, they will have access to EVERY bit of content that you have posted, including the ones about them.

Ultimately, we need to think long term when we post on social media. Is what you’re posting LIFE bringing, LIFE affirming and LIFE building? Because when it comes to our children we need to speak, or type, words of LIFE.

Let’s not drop a bomb now that can explode 10 years down the line!