Four Ways Facebook Makes Life Better For Parents

Katie Katie Parsons is the creator of Mumbling Mommy and is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist. She works from her home office on the east coast of Florida. Most often she writes about life in a combined family of five children and what it's like being a full time work-from-home parent. Feel free to pitch guest post ideas or just drop her a line at katie@mumblingmommy.com.

There are a lot of social networking sites out there and like many moms, you are probably a member of at least three or four. Whether you chat it up on BabyCenter message boards or get your recipes from Pinterest, you spend time on social networks as part of your everyday life.

Photo via SFKids.org

If you are like the other 845 million other active users, you are on Facebook. The pros and cons have been exhausted by bloggers at this point. Still — I’d like to throw in my two cents on four things that are just plain better because of Facebook, especially for parents. Let me know what I missed:

1. Birthdays. Even if you do not have time, money or a babysitter in line so you can go out and party like a Rockstar for the big day (who does?), you can feel the love with the dozens of birthday greetings you will get from friends, family, colleagues and random acquaintences on your Facebook timeline. In past years I have printed out the greetings — sort of like one giant birthday card — to keep for the future.

2. Photo sharing. For parents, this pro is especially true. It is nice when someone comments on how good you look in a photo that someone tags from a wedding, and old high school photos can be a blast. But when you post a picture of your kid(s) and the “likes” start rolling in, it is like an automatic endorphine rush. Not that you needed the reminder that your kids are “adorable” — but it’s still nice to hear it.

3. Link sharing. Twitter is the self-proclamined King of link sharing but Facebook is no slouch. Of course if you have a blog (ahem), Facebook is a great way to share your lastest posts with friends. Any link that you find interesting can find a place on Facebook, however. It is a great spot to redirect others to issues that are close to your heart or links that are just plain funny.

4. Bad days. I try my best to always stay positive on Facebook. I realize that my problems are really pretty small compared to others…. but still…. sometimes you just need to vent a little bit. A post about a bad day at work, feeling sick or something that your awful child has done usually garners some sympathy and “hang in there”s. Free therapy! Sometimes all you need to get through a bad day is a listening ear and a place to say what’s on your mind.

True stories from the front lines of parenting.

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