To find it annoying when parents choose to put their children on social media but cover their faces?

[yellowpinkbluegreenlilac]

I don’t mean parents who for whatever reason decide they don’t want their children’s images on social media: that’s a totally valid choice.

But why share photos of your child and then stick a smiley face or similar over their image? Quite a few pages I follow on instagram do this, mostly those with a small business. They’ve evidently decided to share images of their family life but are so secretive about their child.

I find it irrationally annoys me, as if their child is so special in some way. I just can’t understand why, you know, you just wouldn’t share images of the child at all, or ones of the child looking out at a view so only back of head or similar. Or am I being petty and disagreeable?

Yes they did.

They told DP when he came back after a month. (Two weeks paternity leave and 2 weeks holiday.)

Even more amusing to me is that two of the people who made such comments have photos with DD as a 5 month old when he took her into work.

The point is that cutting kids out of group occasions/photos - and particularly getting other people to not post pics of your kids at said group events - is A LOT more effort than just asking people to obscure their face, which most are happy to do.

Yes the ideal is to not have any pics of your kids on social media, but an emoji on the face is the second best option

How foolish. Surely you'd check for a death announcement or ask for verification?
Plenty of people at my work have babies whose photos aren't on SM. No-one assumes a tragedy has occurred. Very silly of them.

Why do you need to see their child or child’s face to buy something from them?

Turn it around; why do you think they share family photos on a business page?

Don’t know many that do and even if they did, I still wouldn’t be bothered by not seeing their children’s faces. For all I know, the child may have said they don’t want to be on there and the family is simply respecting their wishes like decent parents would.

It’s a weird thing to be bothered by as if you need to see them.

Glad I'm not the only one, I also find it so frustrating. No issue with those that don't want to share images of their children, but if you out a picture of them in for the attention then show the faces.

@phoenixrosehere I’m not bothered about not seeing their child’s face. What bothers me is the suggestion that they are so very important that they must, nay must share their oh so very important photos - but the people they have connections with cannot be permitted to so much as glimpse at their child. It is annoying and very precious.

I was once at a soft play centre and recognised a little girl from pictures that her mother had put on Facebook, I went to school with the mum but hadn't seen her for many years and her child was at soft play with granny so not even the mum who I knew. It struck me that I knew this child's name and had seen countless updates and pictures of her just scrolling on my phone since she was born and yet I was a complete stranger to her. Very odd feeling and highlighted why it's so dangerous and intrusive to constantly upload pictures of children.

My son is 8 and over the years I've posted about 10 arty pictures of the back of his head on my Facebook in total. If people think it's precious that's fine, I'm allowed to be precious about my child.

There’s a difference between posting no photos and posting shots where the child’s face is naturally hidden or unclear and going out of your way to hide the child’s face.

I’m not totally sure why it’s dangerous to recognise a child at a soft play centre either to be honest. I get a lot of the arguments re privacy and don’t disagree but I don’t think there’s anything dangerous about it that doesn’t also apply to ‘normal’ life.

I find it really bizarre. If you don't want your kids on social media just don't post the bloody photos!

A woman I know does it, and bangs on about how she doesn't want her children pictured on social media. Except she has an Instagram for them and posts unedited photos of them all the time on it.

I dont put my children on social media neither do I tell my life story as some people do. I just don't understand how on earth this affects you personally?

It doesn’t. It irritates me a bit and I started a thread on it. Why does that affect you personally? Because if the argument is that posting on MN = something affecting you personally then that surely applies here too, does it not?

Never seen anyone do this. Only person I know who does something vaguely similar, is a woman in my neighbourhood who blanks out her childrens school uniform badge. Bit daft as her photos are set to 'friends only' and everyone who knows her knows what school her children go to anyway.

Because someone else could use the information to gain the child's trust, essentially. "Hello Jane, I know your mummy Sarah, come with me..." It is a safeguarding risk. And even if people want to dismiss that I still didn't feel like I had the right to have seen all those pictures and updates of her little life.

I do agree though that if you are going down the route of protecting your child's privacy I think posting pictures every day with an emoji on top maybe makes less sense than just not posting at all or once or twice a year. In general I find it much more annoying when someone has a child that can't even cough or sneeze or eat something new for lunch without the parents posting a picture, emoji or not.

Never looked at it liked that probably because it doesn’t bother me enough to get irritated by it nor do I assume they do so because they think they are as you say “so important”. I just think they have their reasons and who am I to question what they do with their own photos.

@Coloursofthewind2 but anyone with a tenuous link to the child from school or nursery, a hobby, church, neighbours, friends of friends, could as well. That’s why we don’t generally let children under a certain age out unsupervised (not suggesting you do.)

Given how easy it is to remove those stickers I find it a bit of a strange thing to do.

Huh?? Who does what you've described in your second paragraph, and how do you know that??

But surely all social media posts, especially any involving any photos are attention seeking.

The whole of social media is basically "look at me" 😂 look at my Xmas tree, look at my night out, look at my and my friends, look at my dog walk, look, look,loooooook 😂

Which is probably why I never post anything 👀

OP I couldn't agree with you more.
I'm the only person I know whose kids don't have an online presence, at all. It blows my mind people are still posting their kids online. Get your head out of your phone and just live your life!!
I don't talk about this IRL as it would offend everyone but there's really no argument to posting children online, with emojis over them or not. I can't imagine walking down the street as a child and everyone knowing who I was, when I was born, what school I go to, when I took my first steps, what I got for Christmas, when I had a 'funny' meltdown, Christ even when I had worms (yes someone shared this about their child on SM) and not having A CLUE who they are. Yet so many people subject their kids to this. The PP talking about the the child at softplay really resonates with me, what people share on SM is often so much more intimate, it's not the same as people recognising a child from the school playground etc.
People are so desperate for validation they really will sacrifice their own kids for it.