Sharenting has been added to Collins English Dictionary after polling in their 2016 “word of the year” list.
The new term is defined as “the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children”.
When I left my job for maternity leave a colleague warned me of it.
“Don’t litter my Facebook feed with pictures of your baby; I’ll de-friend you,” he joked.
He didn’t have children, but even if he did… other people’s children are never as interesting as your own.
“Once you have children, and are knee-deep in cute toddler talk, mush-splattered meal-times and your own belief that there has never been a more perfect human, you’re not so interested in the Insta-babies anymore,” says Mamamia Head of Entertainment Holly Wainwright.
Celebrity babies
But masses of people (maybe child-free) continue to be obsessed with celebrity babies like Prince George, Chrissy Teigen’s baby Luna and Bec Judd’s twins Tom and Darcy.
Mamamia writer Clare Stephens says Sonny Blake, the son of Hamish Blake and Zoe Foster Blake, “broke the internet” when he learned to talk.
Cute kids are great for ‘sharenting’, but when the true hardships of parenting are shared in a fun way, we all win.
Real milestones
When Sydney neighbours Becky and Esti happened to sync their maternity leave they came up with Mum’s Milestone cards, which they describe as a “celebration of survival”.
“It’s one thing to take a photo of your little one the first time they ate solids…but what about the first time Mum had a quiet glass of wine to herself?” said Esti Zilber.
“We think that’s a cause for celebration as well, and one other mum’s can certainly appreciate as well.”
Another Sydney mother, Yasmin Quemard, says there is an untold story of motherhood on social media.
“I look at what people are putting on Facebook and I feel like that’s real but actually it’s not.
“It’s just one aspect of a person’s life and being a mum and seeing all these pictures of other mums looking so happy, in control and so beautiful and radiant – I felt like that is only showing one side of motherhood,” she told Mamamia.
As a response, she posted a happy photo with her four-month-old son, Arthur, but with some context:
“This was taken in the park after a two hour crying episode (him) and a small blub blub (me) in the morning. I just managed to get out of my pyjamas at 11.49am and I was surviving on the fumes of coffee after a sum total of three hours sleep that night.”
Yasmin and Arthur. Image supplied.
Yasmin's sharenting has received a flood of support. Her words made others feel better about their parenting journey.
She said she was inspired to "take the pressure off" other mothers who look at perfect motherhood stories amid their Facebook feeds.
Now some celebrity mothers - in the thick of the sharenting - are helping other mothers with parenting challenges.
Television presenter, Bec Judd, recently posted a failed nappy change on Instagram.
Image via Instagram.
And US model Chrissy Teigen revealed some of her post-birth realities after having baby Luna - including naming a perineal irrigation bottle as a “push present” to herself.
Sharenting is in the dictionary, it's now mainstream, and it's a good thing.
The gift of connecting and having a laugh at the trials of parenting should be celebrated with this new official word and with everyone.
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Top Comments
just had another friend upload an "adorable" photo of her child with food all over its face. one more and its unfollow time.
I have had to de friend friends and relatives for their over-"sharenting" - I didn't want 20 pics of the same scene with fifty hastags, including the kids' name and clothing brand they were wearing in an attempt to build their online brand or maybe get noticed by the designer.
The clothing brand hashtags are so annoying!