To wonder how they afford to stay at home?

Loads of parents at my kids school look as if they dont work but in actual fact work in the pms/ weekends etc due to the COL some are doing 2 jobs just like me

I never watch any of this internet crap and find the concept of ‘influencers’ ridiculous and quite disturbing. Who needs these shallow people to tell them
how to live their lives? Some I have seen on tv.. yes, looking at you, ridiculous woman with your children in white outfits covering themselves in paint so you can wash it off… If we don’t look at the internet shit life may be better.

My dd's friend is a content creator on YouTube and TikTok and has got 1000s of followers.

He makes about £100k a year, paid to travel the world and given equipment to do it (like pcs).

He makes what I call teenage drivel, you know taping salad to your face.

I think a lot of it is unrealistic, much like the majority of social media, it can be very easy to portray an image of perfection by highlighting the best parts of everything. It's important not to compare yourself to people's lives on social media as it's often not reality.

But that isn’t actually that much is it. I mean every penny counts but making £1,000-£2,000 a month isn’t great riches.

The influencer I know makes lots of content that is misleading. So if she spots a nice car in the street she’ll take a clip making it look like it’s hers, she goes for brief visits to posh restaurants etc and literally takes visits of herself walking in through the doorway before turning around again and coming out and she uses the homes of friends and family to take little clips as well as going for viewings at big houses for sale and photographing nice features. She even used some of her sisters holiday pics.

Everything is also heavily filtered and in RL she is much larger than she appears in her photos.

A lot of them are under 18 too!

@Zonnet

Don't underestimate the amount of £££ people make from 'the internet.' I know a youtuber - I won't say what they do or the exact amount of subscribers they have, as it is a bit identifying. But they do have between 40K and 65K subscribers, and they make a MINIMUM of £1000 a month from youtube. They also make around £700 to £1000 a month from instagram. (Minimum.)

They work 2 days a week - 18 hours in a 'normal' job, and have these other social media jobs. Some months they make more (than £1000) via instagram and youtube. Sometimes twice as much. Sometimes THREE times as much. Sometimes more. Depending on the amount of views for any given 'video' (or post) that they have made.

They also get paid to do promotions and ads on their internet pages and make multiple 1000s of £££ more per year from this. They also do some occasional modelling. They live with their spouse who has a full time normal job that pays OK. Around £55K. Gets much more sometimes, through bonuses.

They have a big 5 bed, 2 bathroom home - with an acre of land, and 3 of the bedrooms have ensuites. The house has 3 reception rooms, a 20 X 23 ft kitchen, and a cellar. They have a car each. 20 reg and 21 reg. 6 car drive, and a triple garage. Outsiders wonder how they do it, indeed a few people have asked me ... Loads of money can be made via the internet if you put your mind to it!

This person I know is not an 'influencer,' but I I do think the snobbery around influencers needs to stop. These people are making fucking shitloads, and are laughing at people mocking and deriding them.

Same with people who did media degrees. Got mocked by many for their so-called mickey mouse degree. But I know 5 young people (25 to 30 years old,) who are earning 6 figures in TV and film right now, who are laughing at the people who derided them. They had the last laugh for sure!

I actually know some sm influencers (family group) and a lot of their videos are fake. One of the parents family is quite wealthy and that’s where they get a lot of their ‘resources’ from (large house is parents, holiday home parents or sisters etc). Not saying they won’t own it in the future, they just don’t have it themselves now. Just be wary of what you see on the net.

Younger people can be making a large take home wage.
For example - some tradesmen earn a lot by the time they are twenty five and can help build their own house and are not paying off uni debt.
Coupled with paying no or little childcare would make living on one wage possible.
Family help is often a game changer. A house deposit, a car for a gift, a windfall from deceased relative, and help with child care makes part time work very profitable.

Part time night shift like nursing saves on child care if other parent is at home for example. Buying house in country, buying second hand car, accepting second hand baby items, budgeting well.

I bet you could film and edit parts of your life to look amazing on social media..but the reality of that day/ week is very different.. just use social media for inspiration and ideas and don't worry about the people behind it..its all a business they are creating a narrative to sell stuff. Maybe they don't have the same day to day pressure of work/money but there will still be plenty of stress in other ways. Enjoy your own life and make the best of it.

I think the phrase ‘comparison is the thief of joy’ should be changed to TikTok is the thief of joy!

Honestly, stay off SM unless you’re a confident person with good self worth. Infact, stay off it anyway.

Lots of instagrammers that have a big following have that following because they were well off in the first place, and got lots of followers because they had nice clothes, holidays, home etc etc.

I can think of a few instagrammers off the top of my head who are married to minor sportsmen. Another has a husband who owns a car dealership. Another has a husband who has family money.

What I'm trying to say is those that were rich in the first place are more likely to make it big on social media.

Why does anyone care?

I can't think of anything more boring than watching videos of the select parts of some attention seeking family's life.

I do worry about the exploitation of the children in these families though.

You have to be pretty successful to earn a lot from being an influencer.

even those that do well for a couple of years find it’s hard to sustain over time.

i think you might be surprised how much of the trappings are funded by credit.

DH and I talk about it often. We live in a big city and you see luxury 4x4s and other expensive (£80k+ ) cars all the time.

yet if you read the stats about household income, there just aren’t enough people earning enough to being buying them outright.

but a lot of people get a car in finance and pay £500 a month for it or similar even though it’s a terrible deal.

Rich partners would be my first thought

There's nothing wrong with it.

It's a perfectly natural human emotion.

So much is smoke and mirrors. I know an influencer. She’s fairly successful (been on tv through her job) and travels a lot for free. She often gets free clothes sent to her and she gets invited to events.

Not a significant amount of cold hard cash being earned though.

I’ve been a SAHM for the past 9 years and I’m 34 now 🤷🏻‍♀️ DH earnt more than enough and our values/priorities meant we chose for me to stay home. I know tons of families in a similar boat. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege and now I’m retraining 😃 maybe these ones you’re seeing online make money from SM to help fund their SAHMing, which is not for me but if they can do it why shouldn’t they hey!

The one I know comes from a wealthy family, her DH has a very good job and their big fancy house is in a not great area that’s close to a very ‘naice’ area which she claims to be in.

I think it’s a case of it’s only a job for people who can afford it. Ie: if you didn’t have a lot of money to buy nice things in the first place, no one is going to be looking at your videos.

Influencing is a job for privileged people.

So that’s it really: they’re wealthy already. They might make some money from influencing eventually, but you have to have money in the first place before you can even begin.

Are they Mormons from Utah? A huge amount of mom vloggers are from there. If you see a giant American home, you can assume that's the case. They are all very religious and very wealthy. Women expected to stay home and have children young. MLMs started in Utah because of the Mormon culture where women were discouraged to work full time so they embraced the "side hustle from home".

Work in SM can be very lucrative.

Some of them make crazy amounts of money from influencing. My company has worked with a very popular cleaning influencer and whilst I know she’s one of the biggest the amount of money she wanted was insane.

I rarely use social media and I find the very idea of ‘ influencers’ completely ridiculous. Why would anyone want to post photos/ videos of their lives for the whole world to see? And why do so many people enable it by following? I don’t get it, perhaps because I’m middle aged. Lose the social media, you’ll feel much better for it.

I find it pitiable that they are making their kids into money (or more likely, "likes", "shares", an ego boost and peanuts). I'd rather my children grow up knowing that Mummy has a job and colleagues and things to do in the world, than be at home filming them and uploading our home life to the world.

No issue with SAHM - big issue with the commodification of a family's private life especially where children are involved.