To think there's an argument against plastering Facebook with photos of your child

[BaylisAndHardon]

I imagine I'll get YABU for this as I seem to be in the very small minority, but here goes:

So many of the parents I know post photos of their babies/children multiple times a week/month. I remember being a child and it was embarrassing enough when the family photo album came out at gatherings, let alone 500+ of my parents' Facebook 'friends' being party to every moment of my childhood.

I've posted a couple of photos since my baby was born at the beginning of this year. One of her just after birth, and one family photo which I felt was reasonable.

I'd love to 'show off' my baby or post some of the cute or amusing things she does, but she's also her own person, and should be able to decide what parts of her life she wants on the internet, and which parts she doesn't.

I certainly send pictures to close family or friends to see, but I don't think it's fair on her to post them for people she will likely never meet to see online.

AIBU?

And for what? It's certainly not for the baby's benefit, is it?

Do people not like looking at old pictures of themselves. Maybe I'm just vain. I love seeing old baby photos and photos of when I was a kid or just younger. I would love it if I could acsess all my childhood photos on my phone whenever I felt like it rather than when I go to mums and she wants to get the old albums out.

No I woulndt want embarrassing photos online, but it seems only a small minority actually post the inappropriate or embarrassing photos. But I would be happy to have all my nice childhood photos on fb.

Also this generation of kids will have grown up with sm, its the norm to have pics online, so I don't think they'll really be bothered.

I don’t post much but have a few photos of my children on Facebook. I don’t see the big deal with a few photos, I agree children shouldn’t have their whole life documented by their parents on SM, but feel there is a middle ground between putting your whole life on SM and being totally hysterical about a photo of your child being shared.

Can’t you apply to FB to memorialise a page or delete it, my cousin recently died but doesn’t keep coming up as a suggestion as we were already FB friends, his friends keep popping up though

I totally agree. We don't post any photos of our son on social media.

I'm not keen on it, but I get why people do it. I don't have FB anymore. I think when you aren't posting and it isn't the norm for you, it seems strange to put your whole life on there, mainly because you aren't used to it. A lot of people do it though! I prefer using messaging apps with small groups to keep in touch with the people I'm closest to.

I get people thinking that their friends on facebook want to see their toddler on a swing (IME grandparents like seeing these sorts of pics but thats about it) but my pet hate is over sharing the 'memories'. My SIL shares a 'memory' of her son every day, along with new pics of him, so every year at this time we relive him in a pumpkin outfit at 6 months, and a skeleton outfit at 18 months, and now another pumpkin outfit at age 2, all posted within 24-48 hours of each other, with a caption of 'look how small my beautiful boy was! Stop growing' and we all have to like it and say how cute he is and how mad it is that he has grown ..... when growing is kind of what kids do ..... tomorrow will be more pics of him at a baby group at 6 months, or in the park at 18 months, all with the same variation of 'awww, stop growing', and on and on it goes.

Why?

Sorry pet hate rant done.

My youngest is 13 and is still the one saying "post this one on FB". My settings are as tight as I can get them and I tend to post either if we are somewhere particularly photogenic or special occasions.

I enjoy seeing photos of friend's children, or distant relatives.

None of the family is allowed to post photos of the DGC, so we don't, and if at any point DD wants me to delete her photos or stop posting them I will.

I have instagram, its a private one so only friends can see photos, but anyone can see a story for 24 hours.

I do sometimes post pictures of my son, but I always choose one where his face is obscured, for example a few from our visit to a pumpkin patch with him holding a small one in front of his face. Friends know this, so the few that babysit him only share similar pictures.

Until he is old enough to consent his face won’t appear on social media. His BM knows what he looks like, but that isn’t a concern for us, without them she could easily track us down, I doubt she would, but if she did it wouldn’t be dangerous.

I know someone who has a bizarre (IMO) approach to posting pictures of her kids online. She posts their pictures on Facebook but only with their faces obscured in some way (with an article of clothing or some other object held in front of them). I must admit, I roll my eyes at that. Either post photos or don't, but this coy attempt to do both at once is just irritating. I'm fairly certain that very few people want to see a picture of a child with his face artfully hidden by a hoodie or buried in the dog's fur. It smacks of a weird combination of sanctimony and attention seeking: "I'm soooo concerned about my child's privacy, I couldn't possibly reveal his face. But I simply must show you his limbs and torso."

Sorry, unfortunate cross post with the previous poster. I completely understand why obscuring a child's face could be needed in case of adoption or other situations like that. The person I know who does this has none of these concerns.

I probably post 1 or 2 pictures a month. I have a private account and only have people I know on there. It would seem strange to me to post things about my life on SM but not include my DD (2) because she is the biggest part of my life. We also have family in other countries that love seeing photos of her.

All of my photos of her are good photos because when she’s crying, having a tantrum or throwing her dinner around, I’m actually busy parenting and not standing there with my camera.

I post loads. Ds is 10 and I'll now ask/ make him aware of what I'm doing with it and won't post if he asks me not to but generally he doesn't care. It's nice for family and friends who don't see much of them to be able to see them growing up.