It’s not just kids and teens taking advantage of growing up on social media by creating potential careers out of their online endeavors — it’s their parents, too. Both moms and dads are taking to social media to catalog their experience as parents, although moms are usually front and center of the phenom with “mommy-blogging.” Now, a teenager’s Reddit post has gone viral as he complained about his mom’s online blogging.
The teen posted on “AmItheAsshole,” commonly referred to as AITA. This is a subreddit where users ask the community if they were the bad person in the described situation. Other users take to the thread’s comments, where they rate the original poster — if they were an a-hole, if they aren’t, or if everyone in the situation is one (or isn’t).
The post begins with, “I am a teenager and my mom is kinda famous on Instagram and blogging. She had a mommy blog all when I was growing up and of course me and my sister were always involved.” Everything about their lives was posted online, so when the teen had enough, they did something about it.
The teen and their 9-year-old-sister had jackets printed with various phrases: no photos, no videos, I do not consent to be photographed, no means no, respect my privacy, no profiting off my image, my body is my own and no cameras. Their idea? If they are wearing the hoodies, their mom will be less likely to snap and post photos.
As expected, their mother took offense to her kids’ latest wardrobe update. She argued that she just wanted to catalog her kids’ growth and that the clothing’s references to consent suggested something far more inappropriate. Thus, the viral Reddit post was born.
As the post took off on Twitter, people starting bringing attention to the fact that the kids of original mommy bloggers are now growing up and taking to the internet themselves. Just like any other parenting decision, kids’ lives are in the hands of their parents. With their parent’s choice to broadcast their daily life to their internet audience, kids just have to live with it. From newborn photoshoots to teens reluctant in daily photo-ops, one has to wonder when enough is enough when it comes to sharenting.