Before I had my daughter, I barely paid any attention to the many photos of kids in my Facebook and Instagram news feeds. Sometimes those photos even got old, tedious to scroll past when I had other things I wanted to see. Johnny lost another tooth? Big whoop. It’s Julia’s first day of preschool! Yayyyyy. (Those names are fictitious by the way. If your kid’s name is Johnny or Julia, my sincerest apologies). I did enjoy seeing the photos my closest friends shared, because pretty much anything your close friends do is interesting to you. But if I didn’t know you well, those things didn’t matter to me.
It wasn’t that I had anything against the people posting those photos, but I didn’t have this key thing in common with them: I didn’t have kids of my own. I couldn’t relate. I didn’t know how exciting the small milestones felt to them. Even though I wanted a baby, I still wasn’t on the same wavelength. I was admittedly annoyed by the “over-sharing.” Didn’t these people know no one cared as much as they did?
And then I had my daughter, and I became…GASP…an over-sharer.
I suddenly found so much joy in seeing those posts, no matter how well I knew the person sharing. Kids were now interesting to me because I was raising my own.
Diaper explosions. I know, momma. I KNOW. First smiles. OMG BEST EVER. A million photos of the same baby sleeping in different positions. So cute every time!
I’m not the same person I was before I had a baby. I’m at a different place in so many ways, and that is why I won’t apologize for my daily dose of photos. I won’t feel guilty for talking about the things I know some won’t find interesting. I want the people in my life to sit with me in this boat, taking pleasure in seeing my baby grow as I take pleasure in seeing theirs. I know my close friends support me no matter what, whether they have children or not!
If you’re an over-sharer, you shouldn’t feel insecure about it. Here’s why:
1. The people who truly love you will care, even if they can’t relate. And the ones who don’t care aren’t at the same place in life that you are, so their opinion doesn’t matter anyway.