To be fed up of Instamums

[Hmmmmx100]

I followed a few of the more well-known Instamums but got weary of the constant daily barrage of brand endorsements. I can't relate to people on £100k a year in Farrow & Ball houses. I just can't. So I had to unfollow em all, every one. AIBU to feel a bit miffed that these people are using the idea of sisterhood to make money? They're not our friends, they're just there to sell us stuff that we probably don't need anyway.

I've never heard of this sort of thing

But I can't get my head around the idea that you might have ever thought of them as your 'friends'?

And holidays! One Instamum is on her 7th holiday this year!

Worra I never thought that.

worra

They're not friends. Merely peddlers of a lifestyle that doesn't exist

*The American mother and father of five who left leafy Highgate and travelled the world, recently settling in Australia. No tv the kids only play with wooden toys. My arse.

This one annoys me as she massively plays down her wealth & pretends to live a very simple existence.

simpaticasimpatica we need names! I know the second one, haven't a clue who the first and third ones are that you mention.

OP, I agree to a point and I have posted before about my thoughts on one mum blogger vlogger instagrammer in particular who I really feel has sold out to paid promotions/peddling products. However, I follow some of these mums on social media and I find it does inspire me to up my game a bit; which I'm grateful for some days because I struggle like everyone else. They do help me to see the positive side of parenting even if 99% of the time they're presenting a fake image I think, if they can do it and make it look fun/perfect/interesting, then why can't I. Works sometimes

Hmmmmm - I think I know who you mean! And it's her second paid promotion (to go on holiday) in as many weeks!

Where I live the type of mum I see most is women pushing battered buggies laden with Farmfoods bags. Women with five kids under 8 carrying buggies up three flights of stairs to get home. Women that scrape to feed and clothe their kids. And then I see these affluent women on Instagram with their free Stokke buggies and think 'This is wrong'

It's so white too. Which, again, doesn't sit with my experience of being a mum.

I'm totally with you on this. Unfollowed all of them. I've even unfollowed Giovanna now.

Was someone mentioning AMR/RC upthread? I enjoyed her blog before she cashed in.

But they've never been, nor tried to be your friends.

It's SM, take it or leave it.

It's simple, just don't follow them. Remember, behind the beautiful images, there are likely to be 5am starts to go running, arrange flowers and post.

I've been feeling this too recently but I was putting it down to my pnd.
Good to know I'm not alone!!

So many ads. And because I'm vulnerable & feel like shite sometimes I think 'that would be lovely & might perk me up' then I catch myself on & realise nothing material will do that & I should really Spend my scrolling time exercising!

Remember too that they are also mums trying to earn a living and probably feeling inadequate themselves as they try and keep up with the Jones' (their 'peers'). I wonder if there is 'internal competition' (?) to secure the endorsements and get the freebies? Probably. And YY to the smoke and mirrors thing with Instagram posts - cropping, filters, photoshop. A lot of it isn't real. But I like to think it is sometimes as it does inspire me to do stuff rather than allowing each day to pass me by. If it's making you feel that bad OP, unfollow them all.

I'm slightly the opposite way when it comes to Facebook and instagram...I prefer the 'glossy''idealised' profiles! I pretty much have my Facebook and instagram set up so it feels like I'm leafing through a nice magazine of cute babies, holiday snaps, and baking.

Slight hijack - is there a way of getting some of your photos private on instagram and some public.?

Are these Youtubers too?

I don't Instagram so don't really know who or what

Camomila that's what I mean; I use it as a means of escape and inspiration, I don't want to see the drudgery of someone else's life on social media!

And no, I don't think so - it's either one or the other as far as I can see (Instagram)

I unfollowed all of them in one sitting several months ago as I couldn't stand the adverts and shit that goes with it.

I particularly loved it when one wrote about her experience of being poor - that was the final straw for me. If you can afford x, y, z you're not bloody poor.

It isn't real.

Is WIT the 7 holidays one?

What I hate most about most of the instamum is that they often don't declare when they have been paid to promote something. Its high time to extend advertising laws to cover these people.

The YouTube videos ads are the ones that grind my gears; particularly when you get the sense they wouldn't use the product or endorse it in any way if they weren't being paid for it. For example, they're plugging a baby bath product saying they've used it since DC was a newborn - but you've never ever seen or heard of it in their vlogs before

I should add that I'm currently on maternity leave so watch these things when I'm feeding DS that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

They are supposed to declare it, Shiny. Yet I think all they need to do is hashtag the post with #ad not sure how that works with HMRC and the like.

I started using Instagram about a year ago, and followed a few Instamums (including those mentioned here), but then I realised that they are all one big clique, and the only women they support are eachother. A midwife friend of mine was blocked by the midwife instamum for questioning something she said (a professional thing), and it all seemed rather Mean Girls: you can't sit with us.
It just leaves a bad taste now, to be honest.

What are instamums? Never heard of them

The Midwife is always on holiday. I think she has been on three this summer! And all she has to do it tag the company.