Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

Rules for writing and posting on the internet is a work on progress, and parents have no manual to guide them in making decisions about appropriate sharing pictures and information about their kids. On the bright side, other parents who are part of social media communications are willing to offer their comments and criticisms. If they think someone overshares, they will weigh in to say so. On the darker side, some of this criticism gets mean and judgmental. The STFU website has been accused of encouraging mean spirited criticism of parents who post about kids, even to the point of discouraging some parents from feeling it’s safe to say anything about parenting related matters xoJane . We need negotiations and discussions about community practices, but we also need a climate of respect. If online communities are a work in progress, finding a way to keep the discussion open and supportive of parents is still a goal to work for.

image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/cabepfir/disegni/letterascarREDjpg.jpg Now that the videos are showing up online with parents publicly shaming their children, as a viewers once the horror subsides, we are left to wonder how it took so long for this ingrained need to abuse others in the name of correction to find its way onto social media. Here are some of the problems with this approach to parenting. Serving Time – the lifelong sentence of being shamed by a parent in the name of “love.” Ignoring Bullying Research – the potential life long psychic damage on those who are bullied, as well as possibility of repeating bullying tactics once bullied. Social Climate of Control and Punishment – enacting notions that brutality is the best way to correct people who make mistakes. See for example this video of an Illinois parent publicly shaming and disciplining his daughter in the school grounds in front of close to 500 children. In the words of a child “Big people should