My kids are Instagramin'

I plan to steer my kids from social media for as far as I can, however, recently my kids (ages: 7,8,9) have discovered Instagram.... as I am sure most of you all are aware of by now since they are following eveeeeeeryone they know.

After seeing that their cousins and pretty much everyone else in the family had an account, they begged us for one. We, reluctantly, agreed and forbid them from following anyone that was not family.

Next, they would see "People you may know" pop-up and they were seeing lots of Mom and Dad's friends, church friends, and former teachers. They had been doing so good following our strict directions that we gave them permission to follow anyone they knew. We also periodically check their accounts.

It never fails, just when you think you are doing something right as a parent, you are quickly reminded that you probably aren't.

A coupple of nights ago I walked in Rilyn's room to tell her  it was time to get off of her laptop, brush her teeth, and go to bed and I found her teary-eyed.

"Whats wrong?" I asked her. 

"This boy posted something on Instagram!" she sobbed. 

And my first thought, was OMG! Roxie, you are such an idiot to ever allow your kids to get on social media! #badmom

"Who was it and what did he say???" I asked.

"It was my teachers son. He said, if you do not re-post this by midnight you are going to die!!!!" she wailed.

"And I didn't re-post it so I an probably going to die!!!!" she cried.

Immediately, I was relieved. And I may or may not have chuckled a little.

I explained to her that it was not true and that I see stupid stuff like that on Facebook all the time. I told her to un-follow him and ignore it.

"Oh I am!" she hissed!  "And I reported him, too!! You should never scare people like that!!"

So, I would like to publicly apologize to whatever teachers little boy  just got suspended from Instagram......

Resolution #1, check!

One of my resolutions this year is to not be too bogged down with too many obligations.

I'm sure there are some who enjoy never having a moment to just breath, but not me.  With four kids we often find our self too busy. Like, waaaaaay too busy. Over the years we have slowly began to get out of so many activities and this winter we opted to take a break from sports and it has been great. I think we owe it to ourselves and our families to slow down, simplify, and just appreciate our blessings.

I love quiet evenings at home, when we are all together (sometimes a rare occurrence). Its tough having to run to and from practices and trying to get dinner on the table. I think its important to step back sometimes and cut back on things. Its a personal decision, but I think its really important to prioritize things in our lives. Sometimes this is really hard.

For instance, our oldest did gymnastics for over 5 years and eventually was invited to be on team. Her little sister followed in her footsteps. Her little sister who also played soccer. And softball.  I literally didn't know how we would be able to fit in time for our oldest son to get to  do anything. And this was before we added  a fourth child to the mix. So we talked about it and we decided to step out of gymnastics for a while, completely.

With our obligations cut, this allowed us time for everyone to take a chance and explore a lot of other sports with out being too committed to just one.

Over the years we have learned that our kids don't have to play every single sport ever single year. They don't have to attend ever single camp or function they are invited to. I don't have to run myself ragged trying to make it all happen.

Over the years we have valued a more simple life. And we especially value our time together.