insta moms
Today's post is a thank you to instagram. Since having Mo and starting my Making La Madre instagram account I have been invited, welcomed and amazed by the community of moms around the globe. I have many new 'friends' that I now share my experiences in motherhood with. Other parents with little ones, experiencing all the things that I am going through and can relate to me on a very personal level in ways that my real life friends cannot.
I will admit I was 'judgey' before welcoming my own real life baby about the #babyspam that some friends would post after becoming parents. Friends of mine on maternity leave would post what seemed like 24/7 photos of their little baby: bathtime, tummytime, sleepytime, all the damn time. I prefer to treat my social media accounts, @lydialauer on insta, twitter, pinterest, swarm, etc.) as a curated stream presenting the best version of myself. As cute as I think the photo is of Mo eating his first avocado is, I am snapping it for my own memory not to clog your feed and chances are its not gonna be good quality anyways cause my bias to the guys cuteness disregards photo quality.
I started the Making La Madre accounts because I wanted a place where I could post baby stuff, pregnancy stuff and motherhood stuff. Yes, still curated & mostly good quality. I took a step back towards the end of maternity leave after I realized that I had become this lady that was posting quite consistently not only on my Madre feeds but also on my personal feeds photos of Mo. I began to rationalize how I let this happen. What I determined was that outside of my work environment, away from a team of people, my peers I was lacking basic communication. The only call and response I was experiencing some days was the cry of my baby and delivering what he needed. This might sound way too serious and depressing but in this new normal I was no longer in my work environment, with my peers. I was now all of the sudden alone with a baby. I didn't always have someone to commiserate with or celebrate with. And lets be honest I had lots of idle time, while baby is nursing or sleeping to passively browse my news feeds.
I think because of this many moms communicate through instagram. This isn't anything revolutionary that I am saying here, but I finally understood it. Its an easy and foolproof way to make friends, communicate & validate your choices. Maternity leave and motherhood in the early days/months has you all alone with your thoughts. Wondering if you are doing this right, doubting your intuition and worrying. And the other moms out there with the same idle time jump at the chance to like the photos of your baby, applaud you in your parenting choices, and offer you advice when you ask for it. So here is to you insta moms!
Happy Friday! I will be back with a couple guest posts next week from one such Madre I have met via insta. Please let me know if you are interested in sharing your own post about motherhood xx ly moment on maternity leave about why parents, moms on maternity especially, go crazy town posting photos of their kids.