“Parent Shaming”.. does it exist?

Parents with baby and mother with cell phone
Do  you ever feel ” parent shamed “?

We have come up with all kinds of new words- fat shaming, bullying to name a few. Two words came to my mind the past few weeks while browsing through facebook- Parent shaming. With all the new ways to communicate- Facebook, instagram, snapchat and more, we seem to feel the need to seek approval of other parents. For example- mother’s day just passed. Every post on my feed was pictures of gifts, flowers, art work their kids made and so on. Don’t get me wrong, I am right up there in posting about my child and her gifts and proud moments. But has it come to a point that we feel the need to prove ourselves to others by the amount of flowers, gifts we get from our loved ones?

The other big part of bullying are the fb Mommy groups where you can voice your opinion and hope that you will not be judged. Asking a question on your parenting skills. Somehow in that thread, there is always someone that will put you down and make you feel lesser of a person  or parent. So is it ok to put it all out there for all to comment and see? are we too quick to judge? Since having my daughter 8yrs ago, I am constantly being faced with this predicament. Did I stop breast feeding too early? am I a bad mom for doing so? Do we spoil her? are we not disciplined enough with her? so many questions go through your head as a parent. There is no book or website that will give you the right answer either.

I am not saying that everyone does this, but as social media is the norm these days, I am sure most parents are guilty of sharing. Do you ever look at other parents posts and think- well she got more gifts from her family then I did? or how come her child is talking and mine has not said a single word yet? Why is her kid reading and mine is not? Do you ever feel the need to One up other people?

These are all questions that were going through my head the other day. I have always shared with my family and friends every proud moment with my 8yr old and after seeing all the posts lately, it made me think about this topic. Is social media causing us to ” Parent Shame” ? Instead of praising a child in person, we share it to our personal facebook page for all to see so that we can also be praised for being the amazing parents we are?

As a society, social media has become more than a way to communicate. In schools, kids are being bullied online and shamed for not being  cool or for being different. So if bullying and shaming applies to children can it not apply to parents and adults alike? I almost feel that our entire society has become bully’s. We may not bully face to face but we sure do bully online.

Do you think we “Parent Shame”?