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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to find it a bit weird when parents set up a facebook account for their baby

34 replies

chaya5738 · 23/09/2010 12:51

A friend has just done this. She writes messages, status updates, and photo comment as if she is her baby.

I find it all a bit odd. I mean, she isn't actually her baby...

And perhaps her baby doesn't actually agree with her delighted exclamations at photos of other people's children or couldn't care less that someone's baby is wearing the same bib that she also has.

What will happen when her child is old enough to want their own facebook account. Will they take over where their mother has left off? Or set up a new account? Or will they both maintain the profile together?

Oh the dilemmas this modern technological age raises for parents.

OP posts:

GetOrfMoiLand · 23/09/2010 12:54

Oh my GOD now I have heard it all.

What is wrong with people? Confirms by suspicions that Facebook is for morons.

jooseyfruit · 23/09/2010 12:55

deeply weird but couldn't really give a shit tbh

AttillaTheHan · 23/09/2010 12:56

Jesus, has she not got better things to do like register her dog on twitter..

Ragwort · 23/09/2010 12:56

well said getorf ............... there is nothing I have heard about Facebook that would make me even want to investigate opening an account - total load of rubbish.

D0G · 23/09/2010 12:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PutTheKettleOn · 23/09/2010 12:58

I must admit I did this with DD1 (cringes with embarrasment ) There was this application on Facebook called Babybook, several of my friends did it too and so our babies added each other as 'friends' and wrote on each others' walls. We clearly had way too much time on our hands!

In my defence, she was my PFB, and the novelty of it lasted about a week! Hmm, reminds me, must update her status...

Original poster

chaya5738 · 23/09/2010 13:01

On some level it actually makes me angry. Can't parents give their children some privacy? What will happen when their children get to a certain age and don't want all this information on the internet under their name.

I confess having a facebook account (obviously). I have a love/hate relationship with it. Extremely efficient way to keep in touch with people (esp. overseas) but infuriating at same time.

OP posts:

Original poster

chaya5738 · 23/09/2010 13:02

Sorry for the cross-post Kettle - admire your honesty :)

OP posts:

emptyshell · 23/09/2010 13:09

I just won't add these accounts as friends. I think it's weird, I also know one person who made online chat site profiles for both her kids - with their first names, photos and ages on, open to anyone, not even with the ability to lock down privacy like Facebook etc.

My views on Facebook are pretty well known though - I had a heavy friend list pruning session recently, removed all the competitive parents, all the competitive "tell me my life is fabulous - please tell me it's fabulous" and the site is much improved for me now.

I had one friend who would post something about how fabulous her husband was, then he'd reply 2 seconds later with how fabulous she was, and so on... they were in the same room ffs... just done for public show - he's sat beside you - go bonk him ffs! (They got nuked as well in the great purge)

PutTheKettleOn · 23/09/2010 13:11

haha, don't worry, it is pretty odd... now when i see other people doing it i just think 'ahhh, the joys of being a first time parent and believing the whole world is that interested in your offspring'

Mind you, a friend of mine actually has a FB account for his dog Now that's weird!

mumbybumby · 23/09/2010 13:14

YANBU I find it a little odd too. One of my friends has a page for her 2 year old son and she changes his status to 'loves his mummy the best' and other such rubbish. She has also gone so far as to join groups etc for him. Aside from anything else, who has the time to do this?!

emptyshell · 23/09/2010 13:15

I think I've decided my cat really really needs a facebook account and I'll update it on the hour.

Furball is sleeping.
Furball is sleeping.
Furball has now moved and is sleeping on the other chair.
Furball is sleeping.

I reckon it'll be a hit... twitter as well?

RamblingRosa · 23/09/2010 13:17

YANBU. I've got a friend who did this. she doesn't have a FB account but her DD does. I find it a bit odd but it doesn't really bother me TBH

Chil1234 · 23/09/2010 13:18

Some of my FB friends' accounts are so kid-riddled (endless photos) that you wouldn't think it belonged to an adult in the first place. And, maybe it's just that I'm unlucky in this regard, they don't crow about their partners so much as about how wonderful god is and what he's done for them lately.... Purge long overdue.

MisterW · 23/09/2010 13:22

PutTheKettleOn - Two of my friends have their dogs on FB and my sister has her cat on there. Not sure how they get round the minimum age restriction.

RamblingRosa · 23/09/2010 13:25

at dogs and cats on FB! Do they have many friends?

lazylula · 23/09/2010 13:29

I do have an account set up in my cat's name , but in my defence it was for a game that dh and a few others were doing and needed more friends to join them to move on, mil cat and dog are on there also! My cat's one came in useful actually as I had an ex contact me through facebook and what he said worried me that he could see more of my profile than I intended a person not on my friends list to see, so defriended the cat to check it out and was relieved to find out it was fine! Mil does, however, send us messages from the dog or the cat and various members send them messages too, but that is dh' family for you lol!

QueenofDreams · 23/09/2010 13:30

Yep it's odd. I know a lady who has a fb account for each of her DDs. The younger one was 3 MONTHS old when she opened it FFS. I'm like Dog - I don't want to have children on my friends list. Have two friend requests from 12 year old children of friends which I am conscientiously ignoring.

I only have fb to keep in touch with friends abroad tbh.

loveulotslikejellytots · 23/09/2010 13:31

I'd like to know how the cats handle a mouse... [tumble weed emoticon...]

Sorry had to be done...

emptyshell · 23/09/2010 13:33

jellytots - I've got a video somewhere of my old cat sitting on top of my PC monitor (before they all went flat screen and ruined his sleeping spot) with his head dangling down and paws going ninety to the dozen trying to catch the mouse pointer on the screen.

Very funny - for about 2 minutes - not very funny trying to do paperwork while reading around two pointy ears and a head blocking Microsoft Word.

Original poster

chaya5738 · 23/09/2010 14:04

Hmmmm...all this is inspiring me to have a good ole purge.

how do you go about this without offending people? I am thinking suspending my account for one month and starting back up with minimal friends might do the trick...

OP posts:

Geocentric · 23/09/2010 14:13

Can't she just set up a blog for the baby? She can link it to her FB if she wants... Brilliant way to share baby photos and etc imo, without looking wierd.

emptyshell · 23/09/2010 14:24

chaya - if you remove people as friends, it doesn't say anything in your news feed or in a message to them. The only way they find out is if they're actually looking at their friends list (or they're an obsessive friend counter that pride themselves on their 35423 friends they've never met and notice the number going down by one).

Heck I deleted my sister in law and it took her a good three weeks to notice and attempt to re-friend me - which I accidentally hit the ignore button on :D

I just went through and deleted everyone who picked on me at school (yet mysteriously wanted to be my friend now), anyone who just wanted a virtual cheerleading squad to tell them their life was fabulous (if it's so fabulous - get off Facebook and go live it), the regulars in the "copy and paste this into your status update or you're an evil person who doesn't care about the lesser spotted mongolian lost cause" crew, anyone whose entire status update page was about how fabulous their children were (I had some who were pretty much FB accounts for their baby now) and anyone who was uploading baby/scan photos with any regularity (I can't deal with this at the moment post-miscarriage - if they can't accept WHY... I don't want them as friends). Also nuked my sister in law because I'm fed up with every status update I make getting fed back to my mother in law - she's the only one who's noticed I deleted her.

Geocentric · 23/09/2010 14:29

I don't delete people, but I have blocked quite a few people's status updates. They're still on my friends list if I want to contact them, but I don't have to read all their zillions of updates anymore.

ShowOfHands · 23/09/2010 14:38

Can I just state for the record that not everybody on fb is a moron or a muppet. I use fb, my security on it is water tight. You can't even see me if I don't allow you to. I use it to keep in touch with family in Canada, Oz, America, Africa, Greece etc. It allows me to share photos with them, keep up to date with their current developments etc. I don't use it in place of other forms of communication but as a convenient way of staying in touch with people. I do not play games on there or own a virtual farm.

And my brother's cat Chris has a fb profile. She is a Russian spy though infiltrating social network sites in order to destroy them. It's tongue in cheek and bloody funny.

Babies though? For the love of Moses, desist.

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