The Anatomy Of A “Perfect” Family

Highlight reels vs. day-to-day back of house.

People have been lying about what their family is really like internally for as long as we’ve had nuclear family units, and it’s probably gotten worse and more complicated since the advent of Facebook and Instagram, I.e. “the Tyranny of other people’s vacation photos.” It’s especially hard for people around child-producing and child-rearing years, unless you’re “blessed” in the ableist biological sense, because obviously once people have kids, everyone except the very self-aware and those who understand child pornography just start blasting pics of their kids everywhere. I get it. It's a joyous accomplishment. Why not celebrate it? Although, I don’t understand why you can’t just send those pics to your immediate family…. anyway.

So Wait, Why Post Your Family Pictures On Social Media?

I have two good anecdotes here before we get to the meat of this whole thing:

1. My wife has a friend who is extremely performative on Instagram. She doesn’t monetize her kids, no, but it’s close. Well, we went to this lady’s 33rd (I believe?) birthday, and her oldest kid went…