Parenting by Instagram

Is this a good idea? It's probably too late.

Photo by frogses production on Unsplash.

We’re all doing, right?

If you’re a part of this generation of parents—the ones who ‘wind down’ with your social media of choice instead of pouring a bowl of cereal and turning on live television like my parents did—then the algorithms know who you are and you are DEFINITELY seeing your preferred flavour of ‘parenting hacks’.

For me, I was 100% raised on crafts and activities and I LOVED them. Did you have a fully equipped jewellery-making box at the age of eight? I did. It was the 90s and beads were in, but also I had multiple pairs of pliers for different purposes, have many a memory of visiting the bead store with my mom, and have a handcrafted board for laying out bracelets and necklaces before stringing them (thanks, Dad). Also: Finger-painting? Yes. Decoupage cardboard and tempura paint creations? Yes. Iron beads and multiple templates? Hell yes.

But, do you know what fills me with more dread than any other parenting post on Instagram? Craft Moms. The pressure is too much, the whimsy too steep, and the relentless drive to create new posts and therefore new crafts to entertain your children too stressful.

Sure, I do crafts with my kid when the mood strikes us both, but I don’t have a car or a Micheal’s or a forest nearby to get materials — and that is OK. In the three years I have been a parent so far, there is one (dinosaur-themed) craft that I have actively incorporated into our lives from the ‘gram. As for the rest, I have watched, breathed in the confidence I have in myself as a parent, breathed out the digital exceptions of the endlessly-inspired parent, and moved on.

You know what I do want advice about? How not to lose my shit at my kid. Also, how to raise an emotionally-intelligent human. The algorithms know this, and I am grateful.

This is not to say that sometimes the gentle parenting hacks that many of us are absorbing aren’t without their faults or hilarity. (If you haven’t yet watched the viral ‘Teaching My Boomer Mom About Millennial Parenting’, please treat yourself to this gem of a reel whether you are a parent, grandparent, important adult, or otherwise relational to children and the people who parent them.)

I do, though, think there is some good stuff out there. There are certainly some tips and tricks that are working for my family and, if nothing else, our kiddo will have stories to share with his fellow Millennial-raised peers.

Here are a few of our favourites, plus one from us that we stole from a picture book about ice cream that we were gifted by Letterbox Library¹ because we are, truly, an ice cream family.