Instamums 2

[shesakeeper]

Interested to read this in the Guardian today

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/mar/21/instagram-influencers-can-flog-stuff-all-day-but-its-weird-when-they-use-their-kids-to-do-it

*Thread not bread.

Who is Asha? What's the story there?

I wonder if these instamums ever wonder how many creepy men (or women) follow their accounts particularly to look at the pictures of their kids that they post. With completely unsavoury intentions.

The fanny admin was another ad for a particular salon in London. Name-dropping all over the place.

I agree re Mrs meldrum I started watching her channel few years ago.
Her up was off shore mum juggling 2 kids by herself.
When he gave up work completely we then got endless footage of Lee playing golf.
They spent a crazy amount of money.
They not great as disclosing.
Found her pushing that Cleo financial app on Insta you tube and Facebook distasteful as she gets 5quid every sign up.
According to social blade website which tells you how much you tubers make in a year I can't see how you tube pays for for all their spending
But she doesnt blog much or appear to to many sponsored posts.
She doesn't network as much with other channel mum vloggers although most of meetups are South East.
Will I can assume is her very wealthy parents support her and her sister.
As she kept advertising their mansion for sale in Edinburgh and they only air b and b apartment as she advertised that at one point.
They seem to holiday a lot with their parents and sister.
They run 2 cars.
They say they going all minimalist now she's non stop hauls.
After youngest was born they advertised their pobox she gets sent a lot of free items from small Insta shops and companies not so much big brands.
They also said they could only afford 1 holiday yet changed their minds.
They always taking the eldest out of school yet often moaning shes unsettled at school.

Her last holiday she asked advice online food shopping but never did as they still go aldis.
They say they making cut backs and living a simpler life yet they never do.
She spends a fortune in joules and boden I question how much she wears from Primark.
She seems spend fortune on Amazon and ASOS.
Think latest blog is new look she also loves next.

They have private country club membership.

Right now especially since she did daily blogging all blogs are same.
Eating out. Walks. Shopping.speed cleaning and jazzercise.

They on holiday again soon where they neilson holidays and stick girls in kids club.

Fair play to Lee he does all the schools runs food shopping sone of cleaning and most of cooking whilst she sits editing on her mac book moaning about how stressful life is as working mum.

The latest things annoyed me

Was school morning routine much easier when you don't have to go out to school so really all this shes super mum.
I have 3kids and at one point had 3 under 5 and getting to school on time and stress free was a challenge nothing like their relaxed morning.

Also her baby is really cute but does she have to use that demented baby voice all the time .

I think at times shes comes across as very false or very pissed off.
I find her Insta lives doing her make-up and hair quite tedious .
She seems so vain it's all about salon clothes shopping/ meeting up with freinds,gin, holidays shes hardly a realistic average mum.

Her attempt at minimum bandwagon was funny.

I hate some of her clickable titles like we had a domestic in aldis.

I do wonder if her eldest will get fed up being filmed.

I just dont see anything relatable about her any more so try to avoid.
I think the 2 channels the 3months daily blogging shes overexposed.
She has so many phycho fans who adore all her advice and tell her what fab mum she is and how amazing she looks.
Wonder if they will have a 4th child?

It’s jyst so incredibly sad. I guess there’s always that ‘what else is there?’ Feeling with Natasha. She seemed to have it made, great friends, great house, she seemed genuinely happy before social media took over.
Asha was just awful and part of me actually wondered if Natasha was involved in it which is just a hideous thought.
@Lyndasnellsfeet- Asha and Natasha seemed to suddenly become great friends, making vlogs together, they were actually very funny and they seemed to really gel as friends. Then Asha started documenting that she had cancer and shaved her head, started going through her bucket list, Natasha wrote poems about it all and seemed pretty devastated. It turns out that Asha was actually very poorly and had been lying. We don’t know the whole story but since then Natasha has actually used her as a hashtag which is horrendous. Asha disappeared from social media which was probably for the best. An awful, wicked thing to do but there must be a deeper reason why.

I can't ever get worked up about Instamums because one account posting about Blood Stem Cell donor lists was the reason I signed up and put myself on the register - potentially saving a life. And I won't be the only one prompted to do so because of her insta story.

It's amazing stuff, I was completely unaware there was a register for this type of thing beforehand!

I think her eldest will end up going full
on goth or something - filming your kids 24/7 surely must have a shelf life, I don’t think it’s fair to put so much about them out there for the public to see. In another couple of years the eldest will likely be able to find and watch the videos for herself and I do wonder how that will go down.

Yeah I would say her parents have/are providing them with vast amounts of financial help. Either that or they are lottery winners?

Stylemesunday is so pretty, but that post about the holiday stuff does come across as blagging.

Also, what's with the finger?

There's shock value in some gestures, but not after doing it time and time again. It's just lazy and predictable now.

My eyes nearly rolled out of my head when I saw MOD was on holiday again. Don’t get me wrong, NHS annual leave is fairly good, but REALLY?! Yes it is jealousy but I just find it really insulting that she works one day a week —if she can be arsed— and gets to swan around like some kind of midwife extraordinaire whilst those of us who work full time are just about making ends meet, battling tough working conditions and trying to do the best for our women against enormous odds. Meh. Maybe my baby will be adorable and I can make £££ asking for free shit.

That's what makes me so angry about NBs current 'trend' of hers as pushing herself and her bestie Mary Meadows the life coach as being Mental Health experts.
Yes I know what Asha did was bad.But anyone who knows anything about MH could see that Asha was obviously very mentally poorly to do such a thing.
Instead NB destroyed her on instagram.She continues to do so with the hashtag and the smirk on her face with her other friends.
She turns my stomach.MH is something very close to my heart.Ive even thought about attending one of her and Mary's day things that they are pushing or attending an event when she's on the panel just to question her about Asha.

Or rather her treatment of Asha whilst labeling herself as an expert and MH supporter with her new website.
I do know this though..When Asha is well enough, she will tell her story. And we'll see if NB is as smug then.

I'm presuming FOD isn't on this jaunt as he might actually have to put an appearance in at his day job.

One thing I do admire about them is their energy, even with the amount of help they must get, it cannot be easy with 4 children (including twins at the most whirlwind age) and managing work, their social media, a new house etc etc - no wonder they both look knackered half the time! I guess that is one of the reasons I started following MOD - I really admired the way she would just get on with stuff.

Away luggage has been all over IG for a while - I've was thinking about trying it as I need a new suitcase, but the amount of freebies that must have been given out has really put me off, which is a bit of an own goal on their part.

@AdidasGirl I couldn't agree more. All this "mental health awareness" that floods IG, selfies taken while prettily weeping, etc. No-one wants to crosstitch an inspirational quote about the ugly uncomfortable side of mental illness, like religious mania, delusions or hallucinations. I find the likes of NB incredibly disingenuous and patronising.

@AdidasGirl and Asha completely owned what happened in a raw and un-elaborate way. I've got a lot of time for her TBH.

It's an interesting point about MH actually. There is almost a sort of romanticism about it, with all the 'it's OK not to be ok' hash tags and inspirational quotes. It is patronising isn't it?

Two people who are fairly close to me have quite a lot of mental health issues. A lot of the time it manifests itself in them being incredibly difficult to be around - it can make them utter arse holes sometimes. There ain't nothing romantic about it, it's really hard for everyone.

Takemetothefresh, that was Gettingstuffdoneinheels, wasn't it? I signed up as well - she's done a really good job in raising awareness. I like her, she's just really chatty on her stories and seems relatively normal. Not sure I'd class her with the instamums though, her kids are away at uni!

The ‘you okay hun’ shit really bothers me. I hate all this ‘honest’ parenting when actually it’s really dishonest. There are so many lies and freebies which aren’t stated. It’s just not real. How many of us can afford the luxury of staying at home, talking into our phone while our children are at school or nursery? I cannot believe that there are people buying into this public speaking wank being advertised on NB page. I wonder if it’s actually going the opposite way too and trivialising mental health issues. Just a way to make money and promote MM. I actually left Instagram due to all this shit. I like to think I’m pretty sensible and level headed but those little squares made me feel shit and inadequate. I also ended up buying stuff I simply couldn’t afford because I felt I HAD to. So stupid and can’t believe I got drawn in.

Oh and yes, I agree about the whole romanticising mental health.
I hate all these positive affirmation cards they are selling for a small fortune, the whole tribe/village business makes me a bit sick in my mouth, the tshirts stating that we are are mama, a mutha, a strong girl, a girl gang etc. I just don’t get any of it.

Smugness personified.
For all their talk of the 'Sisterhood'
All that goes out the window when a brand deal comes calling.

I find both the mental health awareness and the body positive stuff hard work.

Body positive because with the odd exception it's size 8 post natal women who probably do feel unlike their old selves but post pictures of themselves in bikinis looking like an unattainable vision to me.

Mental health awareness because in my long experience of severe depression it ruins relationships, clouds your life, and isn't resolved by a hashtag and lots of Instahuns telling you how brave you are.

What’s NB background? Her husband is away a lot, is she working?

Her work is blogging and apparently she’s an influencer and founder of her new website. Husband earns well and works abroad often. She left channel mum because it wasn’t her tribe.

You do wonder with the body positive and mental health stuff how much of it is coming from a desire to help people and do good and how much of it is coming from a 'I want to raise my profile' attention seeking type way.

I imagine it's very easy to get sucked into that mindset. Especially when so many of your followers blindly lap it up. I wonder what the IQ of the average instagram user is?

The mental health stuff really pisses me off. As a sufferer of relapsing/remitting depression and anxiety for over half my life I feel patronised by women with their shit together telling me that I've 'got this'. Reading that kind of shit when I'm sat in yesterday's clothes, when I haven't left the house for nearly a week and when I'm desperately trying not to sob in front of my 3yo isn't helpful AT ALL. Because actually, I haven't 'got this' and I damn well know it.

Depression isn't having a bad day when you just want to hide away from the world in your pyjamas, that's literally just having a bad day. I have those too, I know the difference.

There is so much more to dealing with the issue of mental health than posting an inspirational quote occasionally.