5 reasons I’m glad I was done raising kids before Instagram

I raised three boys…before social media became the norm. Facebook was around when the kids were teens but it was primarily used to hold my pictures…as I seemed to have missed the Scrapbooking craze. I have one. It’s not finished. I started it fifteen years ago.

There are many positives I see in utilizing social media to commemorate special occasions…mostly tied to the fact that San Diego caught fire twice and both times I was dragging multiple boxes of pictures into the living room in case we needed to make a quick exit. When our actual house caught fire, I was more focused on finding pants than ensuring that the boys retained documentation of their childhood. We fortunately only lost one wall – and it wasn’t in a room that contained the boxes of pictures. (I really need to pay someone with lots of time and a good scanner.)

I also see the benefit of no longer needing a camera and film. I was never good at keeping either of those around after my first son was born – and you required both to actually take pictures. Chris has several photo albums that were taken when I was a young Mom of one quiet little boy. Tommy has fewer pictures…it seems that the addition of another child decreased my ability to keep the camera loaded. Matthew has a hospital picture and a kindergarten picture. At the point that the third one came, the location of the camera remained a mystery…most likely hidden somewhere with my sanity.

Regardless of all the positive reasons, I still am grateful that certain aspects of my children’s upbringings were not chronicled in a means that everyone I knew could access them at any time. Here are my top five reasons that I’m glad that I was done raising kids before Instagram.

1. 1. My early parenting years created questionable fashion choices.  In this picture, I’m apparently wearing a chinchilla on my head. I’m sure I would have posted the picture of my beautiful son, unaware that a  small furry animal has taken residence on my scalp.
   2. Stupid things in the neighborhood were quickly forgotten.  The boys staged a gang fight in the neighbor’s yard during one of our birthday parties. I pulled all of the boys in the house as soon as I heard sirens, oblivious to the fact that they were the reason the police were called!  Fifteen boys came in…four snuck back out. A concerned neighbor ran over to let me know that four boys were spread out over the hood of a police car. I’m sure the video would have been posted several times over had that happened today…a constant reminder that I shouldn’t have been trusted with someone else’s children. 
   3. I never felt the need to clean the area before taking a picture.   This is a lovely picture of Tommy standing on my hands…with a background of the laundry pile…and the dirty kitchen..and the fact that apparently, my boys wore no clothing…
   4. I felt no pressure to get the Perfect Shot…Since you couldn’t see the pictures until the film was developed, your expectations were pretty low. Occasionally, you would get a keeper. Typically, you got something… that resembled someone…and you called it good.
   5. I spent time living the moment, instead of trying to “capture” it.   I had an insane amount of fun raising my boys without the distraction of social media. While I think many of the young parents that we know are able to keep it all in balance, my obsessive mind wants to find the perfect post. With the upcoming birth of my grandson, I hope to keep Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where they belong – as a means to keep in touch with others and document our lives. In the days where entire families may be on their cell phones during dinner, I’m going to try to grab an old-fashioned philosophy about spending time with Zander. I want to spend time with him just like I spent time with these crazy guys – just laughing and enjoying the time.  While pictures may last a lifetime, the moments go much too quickly.  I want to take advantage of every single one! 

      
      I will say that I’m grateful to no longer need film…my chances of getting any pictures of Zander went up exponentially with that fact!