IS MOMMY ETHICAL?

AUTHORJen Westmoreland Bouchard

PUBLISHED Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

First Impression: An article about ways of ethical parenting of mothers.

Quote from the article:  “women categorized as ‘mommy bloggers’ are simply women who are mothers and occasionally write about their own children. The language used in such blogs is extremely informal and usually narrative, and the most popular writers employ a great deal of humor and levity to entertain their audience… Nothing is off limits to these writers, and yet the recurrent theme of writing about children positions these women in the category of ‘mommy blogger.’”

5 things I’ve learned:

1. Mommy blogging is entirely different from being a writer.
2. Parental overshare can lead to serious consequences that concerns the child at the long run.
3. The language being used by these mothers, as a non-writer, is very informal and lack the subject of clear interpretation.
4. Child shaming can cause emotional damaged to the child.
5. The very act of parenting is at stake if it comes to a point when mother only thinks about her readers and only wants to gain some feedback out of her blog.

5 integrative questions:

1. What are the ethical implications of the child-based connecting and airing of grievances, and the catharsis that is mommy blogging?
2. How can these implications affect both the parent and the child?
3. What are the proper ways that the mother should do, as a parent, to explain about her blogging with her child?
4. Are there any illegal implications written in the law regarding about mommy blogging?
5. How can we determine the limitations of mommy blogging that the mother should be mindful of?

                As a child, typically I would not want my mother to share information about myself because of the difference of our perspective and since that I am involve in it, I think I have the right to contradict her if she wants something posted about me in public. The thing it seems like for my mother, and for some other moms out there, it is a way of them to express themselves and connect with other people by sharing their experiences or feelings. For them they are just exercising something that would make them feel appreciated or sometimes just to gain audience. One thing that I don’t like about it is that not all moms are writers and basically posting something very sensitive like private and personal information about her child could lead to misinterpretation and sometimes an embarrassing scene for the child. It is actually improper to share something like that in public. If it is shared privately with close friends then it would be fine, but if it would be shared in public, that’s a different story. Things such as child shaming can be also present in this subject. It is impractical for the fact that you are exploiting your child to gain some fun out of it and to have more audience. I think no one will be able to smile at someone who share something about yourself that you deem very personal without even consulting you in the first place. There are a lot of consequences that can be subject with this matter and as a mother, I think it is more important to focus on your child’s needs and be able to watch them rather than keeping yourself busy observing your child just so you could blog something in the internet.