In today’s day and age, it’s common for parents to post pictures of their children online. Some people, like mommy bloggers or social media influencers, even make a career out of it.
One popular parenting blogger recently explained why she decided to continue posting about her daughter online, despite the daughter’s objections.
She wrote about her decision in an article for The Washington Post and people were not happy with this writer’s choice.
This is Christie Tate.
Christie is a popular “mommy blogger” who runs a few sites about her experiences parenting and raising a family.
Mommy bloggers have risen in popularity over the last decade or so, thanks to the ease and accessibility of social media.
Besides chronicling her family’s life on her own sites, Christie’s been a guest writer on a number of popular websites.
She has contributed articles to Motherly , Mom.me , and The Chicago Tribune . She is also reportedly in the process of writing a memoir.
In addition to writing articles and blogging, Christie has an active Twitter account.
She regularly posts photos of her children and family on this platform as well.
Most recently, Christie published an article in “The Washington Post” that has garnered a lot of attention.
Titled “My daughter asked me to stop writing about motherhood. Here’s why I can’t do that”, the article sparked a huge debate about a child’s rights to their privacy online.
In the article, Christie explains that her daughter, who is in the fourth grade, recently discovered her mom’s articles after doing a basic internet search.
The articles featured images of the little girl and often detailed personal stories, including the time one of the girl’s friends stopped talking to her.
Christie has said that since her daughter now knows about her blogs, she will ask her daughter for permission before posting.
She wrote that she promises to give her daughter a “heads-up” and the ability to “veto” some photos and content.
She describes the conversation with her daughter as a compromise.
“For now, we have agreed that I will not submit a picture for a publication without her permission and that she has absolute veto rights on any image of herself,” she wrote .
As well, facts specifically about her daughter will be kept to a “minimum.”
For the most part, this seems like a fairly balanced approach on the issue.
After all, Christie’s career and income depends on her writing, and her daughter will have a say in what photos get posted from now on.
However, when it comes to leaving her family out of her writing altogether, Christie is adamently against that.
“…I’m not done exploring my motherhood in my writing. And sometimes my stories will be inextricably linked to her experiences,” she wrote in her article for The Washington Post .
As you can imagine, people had very, very strong feelings about this whole issue.
People do post about their children all the time on social media, and an increasing number of people are making their careers off of it.
This whole thing has definitely made me rethink what I post about my son from now on.
People were quick to criticize Christie for her choice to continue writing about her family.
We live in an age where we know more about other people’s family and personal lives than ever before. It’s not surprising that people felt so strongly about this issue.
Some people thought that Christie was monetizing her daughter’s pain.
It’ll be interesting to see how her writing changes now that her daughter will have some input about what topics she can cover.
One Twitter user worried that Christie would ruin her daughter’s trust in their relationship.
She brings up a valid point. As her daughter gets older, there is a chance she could start keeping secrets from her mom.
People were not buying Christie’s defence of continuing to write about her family.
People on Twitter were passionate when it came to defending Christie’s daughter’s right to privacy, that’s for sure.
However, some other parenting writers praised Christie’s take on the issue.
Parenting blogs aren’t going away anytime soon, so it would be interesting to see what other bloggers in the space have to say about this issue.
Others were still not satisfied with Christie’s defence of her writing career.
What do you think? Should mommy blogger stop writing about their families if their children ask them to?
