“Oversharenting” (Over Sharing As a Parent) is basically sharing too many pictures and details about your kids on social media. A lot of parents I know are guilty of “Oversharenting” and it’s a major turn off not just for acquaintances and followers but also for relatives and close friends, yet I will never be able to come out and tell them to stop posting too many pictures. In fact, I don’t think it’s our right to tell them what to do 1) because it’s a very personal matter and 2) because you can easily ignore or hide pictures or posts you don’t like on most social media platforms, especially Facebook.

Personally speaking, I’m always worried that I might be oversharing pictures of Brian and I try to keep the pictures to a reasonable amount (3-4 times per month) even though I have that urge sometimes to share all the pictures I have of our little bundle of joy.

So how can you tell if you are over-sharing your children on social media?

If you look online, you will find a lot of quizzes and articles that help you figure out if you’re guilty of oversharenting but I think they are all useless because people always comment nicely on baby pictures, so it’s kinda hard to convince a parent who think his baby is the cutest baby in the world and is reminded by everyone on every single picture about that, not to share more pictures.

Nevertheless, here are few things that I’ve learned as a father that could prove helpful:

1- If you love sharing pictures of your child, don’t post more than once a week unless they are part of an album.

2- Be selective about your pictures, choose the one that best describe the moment and write a nice caption. Not all baby pictures are cute, and a lot of intimate pictures should be kept as private.

3- If you want to share a lot of pictures, use Whatsapp. I set up a whatsapp group for family members where I share all the pictures that I take of Brian. Whatsapp groups are non-intrusive and very practical.

4- Alternate between social media platforms when posting baby pictures. Share a picture on Instagram during one week and another on Facebook the following week. This is mostly useful for those like me who manage a Facebook page and profile.

5- Try to include yourself in your baby pictures. It makes them more personal and more relevant to your friends and followers.

6- Make sure you are taking the proper measures to ensure the privacy and security of your family members before sharing pictures. Make sure that you don’t reveal too much details about your kids that might make them vulnerable to predators, pedophiles, thieves, etc. This is a very important and sensitive point.

7- If you are not comfortable with sharing your baby pictures in the first place, don’t do it. There’s nothing wrong with keeping them private and it saves you a lot of hassle.

All in all, the biggest problem is that social media makes oversharing way too easy but it’s not that hard to follow certain guidelines and share safely and moderately.

If you are wondering if you’re taking too many pictures of your kids, check out my previous [post].