Social media can get the best of us, and it’s not rare. Not only is it normal for it to interfere with parenting, one would almost say it is inevitable. You spend five minutes scrolling or watching, and before you know it, it’s been an hour. So, if the cold turkey method isn’t your thing, but you’re still not happy with the lack of productivity your scrolling yields, try this: use all that time spent on Facebook or Instagram constructively; learn to parent in a more conscious and intentional way. Here’s a 3-step plan –
Step 1: Follow
Follow these 5 people and pages:
1. Conscious Mommy
2. Attachment Nerd
3. Mr Chazz Mr Chazz
4. Dr. Becky at Good Inside
5. simplyonpurpose
Disclaimer: I have had influencers and pages that I once considered great resources become political, and stray from what I consider to be healthy boundaries for parenting. At the time of writing, I consider a *lot* (I don’t agree with all) of what these creators put out.
Step 2: Evaluate
Next time you hop on social media, these influencers and pages will show up in your feed. As Conscious Mommy prefaces all her content: take what serves you, and discard the rest. Or as I might say it – everyone’s situation is different, and every individual is unique; look at the advice you receive through those lenses. Pro tip: keep a journal or note in your phone of what practices you would like to implement, why, the expected outcome, and later, whether or not it works for your child.
Some content is informative by explanations to the parent, while others are demonstrations of applications that may work for your child better than what you currently employ. Whether you struggle with threatening to take away things you know they want or love, yelling, spanking, timeouts, criticism, or shaming, your conscience and intuition may be telling you that something needs to change; these methods may not be working long-term (or even short-term) for your child. Not everyone agrees that all of these methods are detrimental, but that is the stance and context I’m going to have here.
Step 3: Review and Apply
While these educational platforms are excellent resources, all things should be used in moderation. Am I saying that too much learning at once is a bad thing? No, but I have ironically had times where I’m on social media trying to learn how to be a better parent, while I shoo my kids away to go do something else, or make annoyed comments about their noise level. Timing is important. Try looking at just a few things at a time, and make a goal to apply those in your day-to-day if they are relevant to your situation.
So yes, there are ways to use social media to your family’s benefit! While not everything each of these influencers, educators, or clinical psychologists says is gospel, many have a lot of excellent content. All-in-all, it should only be a very small portion of your day. But, it can be a worthwhile small scale investment. Happy scrolling!
