To Post or Not to Post
At some point in every 21st century mom’s Facebook-loving, Tweeting, Instagramming career you bite the preverbal bullet and just embrace that you have become one of those moms that can only ever post things about your kids. Before you got pregnant and while you were still posting pictures dancing on bars and on tropical vacations, you would unfollow or de-friend the overly zealous baby lovers. In a robotic-like motion you knew just what you had to do: unfollow (for the foreseeable future), roll your eyes, and put that person in the “with child” category of grown-ups that you could never imagine being.
I remember when we were trying to have kids and it wasn’t happening at that exact moment that I needed it to happen, I unfollowed everyone that had baby pictures and especially pregnancy pictures. Their pictures made my ovaries ache and I felt like their tiny baby hands were slapping me in the face with their adorableness that felt so far away.
When Charlotte was born, I started cautiously, consciously trying not to fall completely down the rabbit hole. Slowly but surely as her cuteness started becoming universal I found myself saying, “Well I have to post that one.” Or my personal favorite, “Don’t tag me in that one; I don’t want to waste a post on an outfit people have already seen.” (Yes, I’ve really said that.) I wanted to so badly maintain an identity that wasn’t solely tied to being a mom. I do, after all, wear many colorful hats: wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, runner, 49er fan, and witty blogger (to name a few). It wasn’t until she was about 6 months, that I fully embraced the idea that I didn’t care whether or not people got annoyed with my incessant Charlotte pictures, what did I care if they blocked me? I also found a clever way to incorporate Charlotte into things that I did for fun. For example after a 10 mile race in Sacramento, I posted a darling picture of Charlotte I had been saving up and said, “Going home to my girl after completing a 10 mile race.” This way I got to show the world, hey not only am I awesome, but look how cute my baby is. Two birds, people.
A few days ago, I tested a theory. Since the majority of my followers are of course moms or moms-to-be themselves, I posted a picture of Charlotte in a 49er jersey with a clever tagline “practicing our game face” as a means of baiting the Dad followers or even the male sports fanatics just to see who was still tolerating me. Wouldn't you know, I had more than a few likes from guys I assumed had long since given up on us. So I stand by the fact that you can embrace your braggy baby posts, while still maintaining ties to other parts of your fun-loving, grown-up life. Touchdown.
Game Face