Insta mums

[Harrielady]

What the actual fuck?! I have just joined mumsnet and can say I will be leaving it after the negativity I've experienced. I joined expecting women helping women.
Women encouraging other women. Whether that's with their children, their marriage or their careers?! 'Insta mums' are mums who have decided a career in instagramming! And why the fuck not?! Before you ask no I am not an insta mum. Not that I wouldn't want to be - I just can't be bothered to tidy. But they do! They make their homes beautiful and enjoy decorating and showing their efforts off. Other women are inspired and they can bring many other women joy and happiness. Who are you bringing joy and happiness too? Going into the internet and plastering negative energy and bitter comments is not helpful, not nice and not at all fucking productive! You bitch about these women spending their days cleaning and shopping and not 'caring for thier kids' but how are you fucking idiots any better?!? Your too busy slagging off other hard working women to get your kicks. It's sad. Pathetic and downright bullying.
Something's that have been posted have hurt 'insta mums' and have caused upset - what have they actually done to you?? You are no better than the disgusting internet trolls who target celebrities or others who are slightly better looking or better off than yourselves. Get a grip.

So the likes of M/FoD and the others mentioned on here, were they famous before and then just used IG as a new platform, or were they just ordinary people sharing their lives in IG and got 'picked up'. In the nicest possible way it isn't as if they have anything overly interesting to share...(the kids are all gorgeous though!)

MoD and FoD also have the advantage of being incredibly easy on the eye, and their children are absolutely beautiful - which helps. Seriously!

Completely agree with juliesaway that Instagram is a ' Wild west of bollocks ... '

As I put on another blogger thread though it's exposure of innocent children that instamums use for monetary gain that makes my blood boil.
16 year old boy has successfully sued his mum to get FB photos removed and she gets a 10,000 euro fine if she posts his picture again.
13 year old boy in Carlgary sueing parents for 350,000 dollars as he thinks it's a small price to pay for 10 years of humiliation.

18 year old girl in Australia also sueing parents for posting her childhood online.

Making money by exposing your children on social media is greedy and evil. Expose your own life but ffs show some respect for your children's right to privacy. How messed up are these children going to be and they realise what their parents have done?

I like MoD and FoD but the ‘I don’t do many ads’ is a tiny bit laughable .

MoD and FoD also have the advantage of being incredibly easy on the eye, and their children are absolutely beautiful - which helps. Seriously!

This. Fairly sure 90% of their success is how gorgeous their kids are.

Instamums bring joy and happiness

Bollocks it does. It's a faux career for people who want to show off their supposedly perfect lives as something women should aspire to. Just something else to make people whose lives aren't as perfect and who don't realise it's all crap to feel inadequate about.

I do judge people who live their lives on social media. It is a particular phenomenon of this time and the sooner it ends the better.

I’ve done 4 ads in the last 10 weeks. How many ads do you flick by before you buy a magazine? A magazine you’ve paid for. Instagram is a free app you download all the content you see is free why should (those who choose to) earn some extra money from an #ad? This is turning into two arguments again, ads and child safety online. I’ve said all I felt I needed to now. Oh and to @Muthaofcats I don’t work 1 day a week I work 3 sorry you think my book is nonsense and we need Instagram to pay for our new house. Comments like these are really rude and not even true! My husband has a full time job as a management consultant we would be very foolish to think we could financially support our family through Instagram. I actually can’t believe how much nastiness is spouted out on these forums it’s quite a sad state of affairs really

I think #ads and child safety are valid discussions to have. I think stating facts about ads that ‘Instaparents’ have participated in isn’t necessarily bullying, more provoking discussion. I don’t think that many people are actually being unkind here, with the exception of one or two.

I happen to know how much revenue an #ad on an Instagram account such as yours might generate, and it’s exactly what I said it was before - lucrative. That said I don’t think anybody deserves to be burnt at the stake for it.

If you are already independently wealthy and just using Instagram for ‘extra’ cash, I do find that a bit distasteful tbh. But I was a teacher and worked with a lot of children living in absolute poverty with fourth-me-downs clothes.

Mutha that’s some pretty nasty twattish stuff you’ve said upthread about FoD/MoD, unbelievable.

@lookingforthecorkscrew finally a valid point I wonder if Cheryl Cole gets this much shit for advertising shampoo (which I bet she doesn’t use) all the brands I work with are brands I use/wear Venus Razors, Barbour, Boots if I started advertising puppy food or a stanner stair lift then you might have a point. Although Simon and the kids really want a dog 🙄

People don't slag off 'instamums' because they hate or are jealous of the actual people who do it. They do it because they think that the commodification of motherhood and parenting and the frankly dishonest curating of supposedly real family lifestyle is unhelpful and unhealthy for society. And they have a point tbf. The 'If your life doesn't look like this, you're doing it wrong' message is all-pervasive, even for people who don't actually seek out those kinds of lifestyle images.

@lookingforthecorkscrew I work with very deprived women as a midwife I understand poverty. How we spend any of the money we earn is no ones business but we are putting lots away for our children’s future

How are the hamsters Clemmie, are the girls still interested in them?

I would feel uncomfortable with sharing and posting about my children as they are too young to consent or not. Am not on instagram so can't really comment but are the children tiny babies? What happens when they get older?

I used to occasionally put the odd pic up of my DC on fb really hardly any but now they are primary school age they have asked me not to so I haven't since total black out on them. What do you do if this is your income and your child asks you not to post about them? Genuine question?

@Holymountain Marnie adores fluffy (sometimes a bit too much like when she gave him a bath 🙈) Anya is a bit scared of hers as apparently he bit my brother once but they play with them every day. They’re very good at cleaning them out on sundays which was half my worry all in all I think they’re a good first pet for kids I think my reaction was more about the fact we didn’t get asked if they could have them.

I think a major difference is that money-generating Instagram accounts are carefully curated. Even if they show a kid throwing a tantrum they’re wearing really nice clothes and screaming in a beautifully decorated nursery. You often find colour palettes that define certain Instagram accounts, greys and light pinks - nothing too gaudy or garish. If a child is eating its tea it’s sat on a Tripp Trapp chair that matches the decor of the room.

Then you have personal accounts that generate no revenue. These are a mish mash of different colours, backgrounds, filters etc. They’re by people like me that baked a really tasty pie last night and want to show it off to their mates.

Numerous workshops offer advice on how to monetise Instagram, and maximise revenue. And the more you monetise the further and further you get away from it being a social medium.

Of course I know we can’t all live in a socialist utopia. But acknowledging the disparity IS important. The lives of mums I see in my area are nothing like the lives of people like MoD.

@KERELA1 I’ve changed my ruling about how I advertise for a brand with my children, sometimes they want them in it and I say no then the offer folds and that’s fine. I’ve really tightened things up since we moved ie no school uniform posts, no geo tags etc. Most brands will respect a parents decision not to have their child in the post and if they don’t well I don’t want to work with them. I’m learning and constantly changing and trying to get the right balance

Anya I said on the other thread I follow you and FoD because I think you're interesting! We were selling same time as you but decided to stay in London.

And good for you if it does generate some money/freebies. My family life is dull (and I'm very private) so no one would give a shit what I post!

I use/wear Venus Razors, Barbour, Boots

Nice bit of advertising there

@zeezeek oh come on! Seriously I was stating that the brands I’ve worked with are brands I use or wear anyway 🤦🏻‍♀️

There seems to be a lot of going over old ground here - wasn't there quite a hoo haa about the whole #ad thing recently on here and then quite a few of the insta mums have now made things much clearer? They seem to be going out of their way to put #ad and #spon etc where it needs to be now?

Among the few (admittedly I don't follow them all so I might be wrong) that I follow, there seems to have been a big change so is it worth continually having a go at them for things that they maybe used to do but don't anymore? Is that productive?

Is it a bad thing to make money from Instagram? Even if it is lucrative is that a problem? I think it's ok for people to be successful as long as they are not lying about ads or breaking the ASA rules, surely? If people don't want to see ads they can unfollow that person and just follow friends and family or smaller-scale accounts.

@anyalovesrose Clemmie I've messaged you on Instagram with a quick pregnancy question in response to one of your comments on here, it should be in your direct messages folder

Yeah it's fine for them to be successful or whatever

But to use their kids to get that??

@RunningOutOfCharge

I wouldn't do it but it's none of my business if other people do it. To be honest, the bits that I find most interesting from the insta-mum posts are usually about interiors, beauty, travel and product recommendations. I find when they put their actual children on insta stories or whatever, I just skip past as I don't find it interesting to watch them cooing at the phone.

Yes, I think we have all agreed that adding photos of your kids to a public social media post is something that many of us would not do, however, we can't licence how other people parent. I wouldn't want to have to deal with the fallout from a child who hated it later on (many may not care) but that's their problem, not mine. I don't think it makes them bad people.