Smuggest mum blogger post ever?

[Yippitydoodah]

I follow a mum blogger who lives in a very remote location in the UK. Posts have always been a bit ‘aren’t we wholesome’ but with some interesting stuff too. But just recently the smug has reached a new level! She homeschools her kids (not short of a bob or two) and posted about their day outdoors in the nice winter sunshine. She said ‘my son said, just think mum, if I went to school like everyone else I would be sat in a classroom missing this beautiful day. Isn’t he wise?’

AIBU to ask if this is the most self congratulatory post ever?!

god I’d hate to hear about “Finns Montessori puberty”🤣🤣

do you think he’s still sleeping in a 15inch organic bed, wiping his nose and using the potty in the mirror as a 13 year old?

😂😂😂

@Tinner01 maybe he has an organic Japanese wank sock from her fabric stash ??? He must be about 17 🤣🤣

You can see Finn and his two younger siblings on the Instagram page 'mamaliberated'. They actually seem like a relatively normal family now!

@Kanaloa

They're vanity projects. The children's task was to reflect back the overblown self image of the adopter back at them.

The Russian government was right to stop foreign adoptions.

Still - imagine adopting a child then saying you’ve ‘rehomed’ them 😢 Surely you would have your family tell you this was unacceptable language. I heard China has also restricted international adoption, not totally banned but very harshly restricted. I think it’s a good choice. Adopted children are already traumatised so how is ripping them from their home and culture going to help?

I'm glad the Liberated family seem to be doing well too. I looked through some random posts from the Sew Liberated archives last evening and saw the middle child had heart surgery as a newborn, so I'm especially glad to see he came through that.

The blogger herself apparently started her sewing site when she and her H were living on a doctoral student stipend, and managed to make money selling patterns and keep the family afloat. The lifestyle blog grew from that. It's not so hilariously lacking in self awareness any more, which is a pity.

I'm going to raid the archives to see if they ever went through with the nighttine elimination bowl for their newborns and if so, how long it took before they bought a big box of Pampers.

Agree, @Kanaloa

The use of the term 'rehoming' is revolting.

I have a suspicion that a person who
would do this is so far up their own asshole that very little of other people's reality ever intrudes upon their consciousness.

That’s what it was for me. We just ‘rehomed’ our adopted baby with disabilities. Like? And then ‘gotcha day.’ Just a whole commodification of an extremely vulnerable child. It blows my mind that they must be surrounded by people (family, friends, social workers) and not one person said ‘what are you doing? This is insane.’

Glad that the sew liberated blog gave so many people a smile.

I did used to follow some blogs back before the whole influencer thing kicked off. I don't now because they are mostly tedious and very very obviously fake. But I used to find somebody that I admired or found interesting or lived a different life from me and follow them. I liked Amsterfamily, very funny account of a woman who had emigrated to Amsterdam. Renegade mothering (she has coincidentally also emigrated to Amsterdam, no relation between the blogs), carried family, that was an attachment parenting one I liked when DS1 was small. Can't remember others now. Random reality, an ambulance driver.

The "rehoming" adoptive children is really sickening, I think there is a really disturbing narrative about adoption in some parts of America, it's all tied up in religion, abortion rights and a load of other complicated stuff. The reality when the children aren't grateful for being saved (not to mention traumatised or having other complex needs) is too much for a lot of people to handle, and really they shouldn't have been allowed to go into it with that mindset and understanding.

Lot of private adoption agencies and international adoption tied up in all this. It's unfortunately all linked back to money, but I see it as a form of human trafficking.

PMSL🙈🙈🙈

Russia banned adoption of Russian children into America. It caused an outrage from the world at the time.

I agree with your thoughts there, @BertieBotts.

The older children adopted from Russia were never the blank canvases the adoptive parents imagined them to be, and they resisted the projecting of American expectations of 'rescued' Russian children.

Russia was absolutely right to stop the adoptions, especially to the US.

On top of all you describe, there was also a thick layer of 'saving the children from the Red Peril', with children taken from humble but secure and predictable surroundings and plunged into a world of OTT materialism, bedrooms decorated with Disney images and paraphernalia, etc, and often called by americanised versions of their names - people adopting children who basically swallowed the capitalist vs Communist gospel without ever chewing it and had no idea of the emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of the children, who saw tired old orphanage playgrounds and spare, shabby buildings, and thought only in terms of Russia Bad/ America Good, and bringing the narrative to its logical conclusion - "I am doing a heroic and patriotic thing."

Of course in reality, while the chdren were happy to have a family adopt them, they were not thinking "I am saved from this wretched post Soviet existence in the Evil.Empire and I can now enjoy the American Dream". The idea that the children could miss the staff and their friends from the shabby orphanage, the plain food, the squeaky beds with the chipped paint - and wouldn't gleefully embrace out and out materialism, wall to wall Disney decor,, etc was something many of the parents couldn't accept at all.

For some adopters, the idea that not every single person in every corner of the world cherished the American Dream close to their bosom was a reality they simply couldn't wrap their heads around.

The level of American patriotic pride and the psychological impact of the Cold War and decades of anti Soviet propaganda in the US weren't appreciated by the people vetting adopters.

A really interesting post @mathanxiety , thanks for sharing your knowledge.

This thread has taken an interesting turn but it's an example of when people assume Russia=bad (as it was with the anti-American adoption law) and now over a decade later people started to realise that Russia were right to do this.

At the time of the Russian adoption ban in the US there was horror over several murders of recently adopted Russian children, and one case where a child was put on a plane to Russia with a one way ticket. I don't think anyone in their right mind thought the process was well run, and apart from agencies who had to return fees to prospective adopters, there was a feeling that Russia was right to suspend adoptions.

Very annoying!

I quite Finns decor. For an older child though.. .

American adoption industry seems mad on the surface, and probably deep down too.

I hadn't even thought about the patriotism and anti-soviet feeling, it's just like a trifle of awfulness isn't it? Layer upon layer of baggage... And everyone well meaning but just... not quite getting it. It's sad really.

Our local mummy bloggers get on my nerves. We live in a small city with very few places to go - every event they all get free press trips to advertise it when they all clearly can afford it themselves and I'd rather see someone who need it go free.

One is an ex teacher who did the whole tuff tray thing - writing practice - themed storybooks - everything perfect. She also prattle on about trying to save money as she a appears to be a shame but then in the next slide will be in our town buying some new shit.
They all seem to dress their children in various shades of beige and grey and their rooms match - when they decorate they make out they consult their children but somehow use obscure insta shops to kit them out when their kid probably wants a paw patrol room or something.
They all love each other and comment on each others posts with lots of 'hun' comments

The one that really makes my eyes roll spends her days learning to skateboard, whilst faffing around rearranging the same twigs in a vase in her soulless white house (she can't have colour pictures of her children- must be b&w) whilst yawping on about how stressed she is and going on about reusing her clothes whilst simultaneously receiving the entire joules catalogue for free. Writing pathetic missives on her blog about the benefits of flower arranging or hownshe decorated her daughtera room - spolier she asked her daighter what she wanted and then did what she wanted anyway. I saw her walking through town with her kids who also have to look perfect and not allowed their own personalities - she even did a bouncy model catwalk walk like someone was filming her (they could have been).

Oh that felt good to get out - I do know how sad I am that this has bothered before anyone says I can unfollow but its kind of like a love hate enjoyment of seeing what crap will get posted next. Most parents are just muddling through life and don't have time to care about the kind of stuff these women do. I suffered terribly with pnd and some of it was these seemingly perfect mothers on social media that made me feel totally inadequate.

@LikeSnowOnTheHill

• In England that is. Not that wise to comment without understanding basics of different education systems in the UK.*

Not everywhere in England is on holiday, holidays are set by local authorities and not at a national level in schools. Schools in England may also have differing holidays depending on if they are part of an academy trust or how they have allocated their teacher training days. The comment was just a witty comeback and maybe it's not that wise to comment without understanding the basics of different education systems in the UK.

I agree.

Too many people think that children are characters from some sort of Disney film - (they are the same with animals) - and that a few days/weeks in a new "loving" home is all that's needed and then everybody will be sitting rung the table like the Waltons.

These are REAL children - as you say they are often horrible traumatised and have massive emotional and psychological difficulties which can take years to resolve (if they ever do become resolved).

A child with these difficulties is a lifetime commitment, hard work and heartbreak.

They are not accessories.

Re:’ If my child was coming out with deep and haunting phrases at 5 I would know I had failed them.‘. What is this meant to imply? That you are one of the many English anti-intellectuals who want schools to teach to the lowest common denominator? What on earth is the problem if a child is exceptionally clever? Hopefully such children will not be under-valued or bullied or abused or ostracised by you!