As a blogger, I share much of my life online. Readers of Mom Home Guide see everything from how I recently decorated and furnished my living room, what I’ve recently planted in the garden and my latest DIY projects, like the throw pillows I made for my home’s new sofa. There are things you’ll likely never see me post about online, however!
There are reasons why I’m a home décor/DIY blogger and not a family/parenting blogger. A main reason is that I’m obsessed with decorating and improving my home. Part of the reason is that blogging is my choice, not my family’s. I’m open to sharing my recent projects online, but that doesn’t mean my husband and kids want their lives shared for all to see!
Online Safety
Most people know you shouldn’t share personal information like social security numbers and banking information online. But plenty of people share very private information – and lots of photos — about their families on blogs and on social media outlets like Facebook. Being somewhat “old school,” my husband would never go for that – he worries that if I were to share personal photos of our family online or on Mom Home Guide’s Facebook page, we might find our photos featured in a billboard ad somewhere or in a Facebook advertisement, since Facebook supposedly owns your content once you post it on its site.
You’ll Never See
In the interest of promoting Internet safety, SingleHop will be collecting responses from various people and bloggers about what they won’t post online. SingleHop will then share some of this feedback on social media and on the SingleHop blog. This is my list!
1. Personal family photos – I love my kids and family, and I get asked to share photos of them online, but no matter how tempting it is, I won’t do it. My family wants our personal photos to stay in our photo albums and scrapbooks, not in Facebook’s or some other company’s.
2. Parenting troubles – I’m willing to talk about parenting in the abstract, but I’ll never share very specific details about parenting my kids online. I think my kids are great, so I don’t really have many parenting difficulties. But the last thing my kids want to see online is information about their latest growth spurt. Or, as they grow into teenagers in a year or two, they wouldn’t want to see anything about their private teenager lives online. Braces, dating, acne, and all the usual things a mom of teens might blog about would provide plenty of writing material, but you won’t find it here!
The American Girl Place in Manhattan is a fun day trip from New Jersey.
3. Travel plans – It’s just plain not smart to post online about when you will be leaving town for a fun family vacation. It’s fine for friends and close neighbors to know when you are going away (so they can keep an eye on your house for you), but it’s not fine for strangers to know! I am happy to share information and travel tips after my family vacations and trips! (Last summer I posted about four day trips my family has taken – to Ocean City and Cape May on the New Jersey shore, to Bushkill Falls in Pennsylvania, and to Manhattan to see the American Girl store and Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. They are all great sights to see within an hour or two of New Jersey.)
Van Gogh’s The Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
4. Photos of friends – I share photos of friends online, but never without their permission. It would be nice if people always had this policy – photos of my kids have popped up online because they have been shared by well-meaning family and friends. I have shared photos of the beautiful craft room that belongs to my friend, Christine, on Mom Home Guide – after getting her OK. Christine’s room was then featured in the ebook, “Rooms Repurposed,” and she was thrilled!
What aren’t you willing to share online? I’d love to hear from you!