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Selfies, Sleeping Babies & the Decline of Civilization

by Deborah Cruz

Selfies, photos of babies and babies with pets have officially over saturated social media.

I know this post will probably not get me any friends and I am honestly not trying to be an asshole. I am a sucker for a cute baby photo as much as the next person but honestly, is anyone else getting tired of seeing babies (other than their own) sleeping? I currently have over 100,000 photos that I have taken of my girls since they were born. I took them for my own enjoyment. Sure they are adorable but you don’t want to see every photo of my daughters, every moment captured. I mean its babies in baskets, babies with puppies, babies with daddies, babies with other babies and babies as part of art while they sleep. Babies with painted on mustaches, wearing fedoras and roller skates. Gatsby baby sipping an old fashioned and astronaut baby planting a flag on the moon while baby Mike Tyson and baby Evander Holyfield chew on one another’s ears.

When my kids are asleep, especially when they were asleep as babies, there was no way in the world I was going to be using them as props with animals or amidst the backdrop of a cityscape or flying through space or taming a lion or whatever the hell else they are doing these days. Also, where are you guys finding the time?

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The more I look at these adorable photos done by Sioin Queenie Liao, I am reconsidering babies as art because OMG, my ovaries are twitching from the cute

Are these only children? Do you have a nanny? Is this your job? When my kids were babies and slept, I let them sleep because an overtired baby or child woken out of a nap before it ran its course was certainly not worth a photo op! My sanity is worth more than a potentially viral photo op. I always let sleeping babies lie.Sure, I think the photos are awesome but I don’t want to see every.single.one. you take. When did this happen? Do we keep nothing for ourselves anymore?

And the selfies? Holy fuck am I sick of the close up, Zoolander faces, #nakedselfies in the shower, at the gym, in the bathroom, in the ER getting stitches, giving birth breastfeeding and ass wiping. Is there nothing sacred anymore? Look I enjoy a good fly on the wall moment as much as everybody else too but suddenly, it’s just too damned much. People, pump your social media brakes. You’re telling us all too much. If a picture’s worth a thousand words than you just told me what a raging douche bag you are, in 15 languages, 67 different ways.

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Credit: Instagram & Danielle Lloyd

Selfies have their place. We’ve all taken them. Hell, as moms we are the photographers in most cases so, sure, we have to slip a selfie in here and there just to commemorate that we are here. That we lived. That’s fine. I’ve taken selfies. We all need avatar photos for FB and Twitter, etc but for grown ups to be taking selfies every day or in some cases multiple times a day, you might have an addiction. Take as many selfies as you want for your private collection but I don’t think the entire world needs to see you chew your food, kiss your kid’s booboo, your outfit of the hour or how your eye make-up looks and we certainly don’t need to see you in the shower with your baby, your backside or your stomach after eating; those are moments that you should keep and cherish for yourself. Nobody needs to see your post-coital selfie unless you are a hooker for hire.

Looks like just like with food, we all need to learn some social media selfie portion control; everything in moderation my friends. Take as many selfies and kitschy, cute and creative photos of your children and your pets as you like but how about we exercise some self-control and and only upload a chosen few to FB and  Twitter. If you must photo dump to satiate some need to document every image, why not keep it to Instagram?

P.S. NONE of this applies to newborns. Bring on the newborn photos, I can look at them all day:) Just don’t pair them with the family pet or use them as a prop in an elaborate creative purge every hour on the hour.

What are your thoughts of this time we live in of constant selfies, sleeping babies and their exciting lives with their pets?

 

Photo credit: If you can’t get enough of these cute kid photos, check out Sioin Queenie Liao slideshow on Today Moms bit I’ll never budge on selfies.

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8 comments

Ashley @ Forgetful Momma 2014/02/11 - 12:44 pm

Woohoo! Someone else said it! Thank you. I love babies, I really do and wow some people have quite the imagination. But we my babies are sleeping, I sure as hell am not moving them unless I have to. A photo shot doesn’t not register.

Reply
Deborah Cruz 2014/02/11 - 1:09 pm

Thank God. I thought for sure I was the only one. I do love babies, obviously, but too much people! THanks for having the guts to agree with me:) Usually even those who do, won’t comment…for fer of backlash but I’m pretty sure everyone knows that I am not a baby hater..just tired of seeing all the babies sleeping in cityscapes and with every animal in the world. It’s starting to border on creepy.

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Annie (@MamaDweeb) 2014/02/11 - 4:24 pm

What are new moms supposed to do? Just watch their babies sleep? Where is the fun in that? When I was a new mom all I wanted to do was ignore my house and my exhaustion and create works of art out of my (briefly) sleeping baby. I didn’t have an iPhone back then. I had to clean my house and text my friends. Life was so hard and lonely back then………..

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Kerry 2014/02/11 - 4:26 pm

I’m totally with you! I’m hoping this phase will pass soon. I certainly don’t want to see my own kids embracing the “selfie” bandwagon. It just seems so narcissistic. And in regards to the sleeping babies – when my kids nap – it is my time to get stuff done – not orchestrate a full-on photo shoot.

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Tracie 2014/02/11 - 8:27 pm

I enjoyed looking at those sleeping babies as art pictures, because they are really creative, but now that I’ve seen them…..I’m good. I don’t need to see them any more. I was just like you when my daughter was a baby, there was no photograph moment important enough to risk waking a sleeping baby.

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Galit Breen 2014/02/12 - 6:50 am

I think you’re right that we don’t need to share every single moment — like bathroom moments, those can definitely go unshared. 🙂 But besides things like that, I don’t mind babies and selfies. Slices of life are nice, yes?

(Love that you opened this discussion, sister!)

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Leighann 2014/02/12 - 10:34 am

I don’t want to see every single moment. Like the bathroom moments, or the children in the bath or on the potty. Somethings need to be personal.

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Sonya Morris 2014/02/12 - 12:33 pm

Share some, keep most to yourself! Seriously, are people not afraid of who is actually looking at their photos? I mean all the creepers, stalkers and weirdos! No thanks!

Reply

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