More and more moms are taking to social media websites to update family and friends on their lives and their children, but a popular author warns too much time online can take away from everyday parenting.
Lauren Warner is an Arlington mom who loves expressing herself in her blog “Sipping Lemonade,” but she said she began to realize that too much time online could end up being a parenting problem.
“I just kind of realized I never wanted my kid at my side saying 'Mommy, look at me!' and I say, 'no, mommy's got to upload a picture of you to Facebook,'" Warner said.
According to Heidi Murkoff, author of the "What To Expect" series, more than 87 million women are active in social media each week. 18 million of those are mothers reading blogs.
"The Internet can be a wonderful tool to help us enhance relationships that are already there, but when it becomes a replacement for those relationships then I think that's where we kind of start having some concern, and I think it's a pretty common thing these days and it's something that's very easy to fall into," Warner said.
While Warner believes communicating with friends is important "adult time” for parents, she worries what message it sends to her children when she's doing it online rather than in person.
"When they see that it's more important for us to be with an iPhone or a computer, rather than another human being, then they're starting to realize that's the most important way to communicate," she said.
So, to keep temptation at bay, Warner leaves her cell phone in another room, and she makes it a point to schedule play dates with friends and their kids.
"The kids really realize what's important and that's being together as humans, not with our computers," Warner said.
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To see the entire “What to Expect” social media blog addressed above, click here.
