How I stay present with my family while still sharing pieces of our life with you on Social Media is a question I get often from our LTL Mama tribe. With the holiday season (and the flurry of shareable photos + moments that come along with it) officially VERY MUCH upon us, I figured I would dedicate a post to how our family balances sharing our life with actually living it- in case any of you find it helpful.
Now, I am not the expert on balancing work and life and I don’t want to give the impression that I am. My ability to be present, as with most other things in my life, is a work in progress and it often times results in friction between the #handsomehubbs and myself- and not the sexy kind if ya know what I mean…. 😉 Some days I feel like I’m doing a great job balancing work and life and others I feel like a complete failure- also the case for most other things in my life. BUT, it is something that I put a lot of thought into on a daily basis because well.. #momguilt is REAL (so is #wifeguilt)!
Snap Now, Post Later
This is a big one for me. I LOVE sharing our everyday lives with you all via Instagram Stories– it’s probably my favorite part of the blog and where I connect with you all the most. Documenting our everyday lives though, means having a camera/phone in my hand at all times, there’s no going around that. How I’ve balanced this with “living” is by taking pictures and videos all day, BUT posting them all in a row at three times through out the day (more often than not, sitting in my parked car before I go in the house or as I’m coming out- sooo glamorous! HAHA). For example, you’ve all seen videos of me laying in bed with Chick early in the morning (I’m proud to admit that 8AM is my version of early in the morning.. ain’t no shame in that). These (even though they happen around 7:30-8 AM) normally don’t get posted until about 10-11 AM, when I take a minute to find a creative way to share our morning with you all. Same goes for bath time, bottle or any family outing- I take lots of videos and pictures but don’t post (which is the actual time suck) until the ‘moment’ is over.
Watch Two Times, Film on the Third
Another biggie. Kiddos say the darnedest things and we all want to capture THE perfect moment, I get that more than anyone! Guess what though? Kids say the darnedest things over and over and over and over.. ESPECIALLY when Mama and Dada are giving them attention for it. I say, enjoy this moment and film the next one (or the next or the next or the next after that..). Would you ever have guessed I don’t film it on the first try? I bet not.. Kiddos are LOVE putting on a show, let them! 🙂
Cut Yourself Off
Have you noticed I hardly ever post after 9 PM or so? That’s my Social Media cut-off. If we are at home, after 9-9:30 PM I put my phone away and hang out with the #handsomehubbs one on one. I literally have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 9 PM so I know cut-off time is approaching. For nights out and/or if we’re traveling, it doesn’t make sense to go by the clock (events often start later than 9 and with traveling there’s always SO MUCH I want to share! I Meaaan..) so I have a different “cut-off” point for that: I put my phone away once you’ve all gotten a good sense of the vibe, the place, the people and whatever it is we’re doing. Sound to nebulous? Worry not! You know I love me a concrete example..
Let’s use the Peru wedding as an example. In that case, the party didn’t even start until past 9 pm so my at-home cut-off time wasn’t going to work. Instead, I tried to film enough of the night so you guys got a sense of the EPICNESS that was the wedding decor (using Kira Kira, of course!), a little behind the scenes logistics (Remember the bathrooms? They were INCREDIBLE!), who I was with (bride, bridesmaids and #handsomehubbs pics) and what the vibe was (Gatsby AF!!!). Then, I put my phone away for a couple of hours and LIVED it. After about two-three hours the mood/vibe had changed from beautiful decor to a ranging party so, I gave myself permission to pull out my cellphone and snap some pictures/boomerangs and I put it right back in my purse (remember the ‘this is going to hurt tomorow’ boomerangs? hahaha.. It did hurt the next morning FYI). That’s it! You all got a real good flavor for the party (or at least I hope you did) and we enjoyed our night out. Balance!
Turn Instagram + Facebook Notifications Off
Reading the heading for this one you probably thought I lost my mind, right? A blogger telling me to use Instagram LESS? That’s right, my friends! Let me explain what I mean.. Social Media is a part of our every day lives. It is second nature for most of to cruise through Instagram (and/or Facebook) several times a day on our down time. Whether it’s when we’re waiting in line or stuck in traffic (I know this is bad but, I’m DEF guilty of it ESPECIALLY with December bumper to bumper traffic!) we all do this! I’m NOT saying you have to stop doing this, not at all- in fact, please do this MORE and watch my stories while you’re at it hahaha… What I’m saying is this: given our downtime cruises through Insta, we don’t need notification to POP UP on our phones to take us out of the NOW and into the ‘GRAM. Texts can be really important. Phone-calls can be urgent. Instagram and Facebook are neither urgent nor at the top of the importance list. By doing this small change in our relationship with Social Media we can enjoy the NOW a little bit more, I think.. If you have a tagged photo or a message, it will still be there in 20 minutes when you have downtime to scroll through your feed. Ya feel?
Finally, A Note on Cell-Phones
Sophia is majorly OBSESSED with our cellphones. She is constantly trying to snatch it off our hands. She has figured out how to unlock them and place calls to China. Yup, China.. I think this means we use our phones too much BUT I’m not so sure how I feel about it. Is that insane? Hear me out.. On the one hand I feel like by mastering technology she is getting a leg up for the future- these tiny telephones run our LIVES and it’s 2017. Can you imagine how much we’ll be using them in 20 years? On the other hand, I’m pretty convinced anytime she stares at a screen a little bit of her brain turns into mush sooo.. there’s that! Just my thoughts on babies and screens HAHA.
That’s it, my friends. That’s how I try to be present to enjoy my little fambam everyday, while still sharing our daily lives with you. What do ya think? Any other tips I should be implementing? Whether you’re a blogger or not, we all live in the age of Social Media and living in the moment when you want to also capture the moment is a hard balance to strike. Do I strike it perfectly every day? Absolutely not.. but I promise I’m trying. And that’s all we can do..
Thanks for stopping by, friends! Everyone’s outfits are linked below. All pictures were taken by my lovely friend Nicole from Huggable Photography. Nicole also took out Christmas card pictures– I’ll do a post with those tonight! Happy holidays lovies!
Until next time..
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