25 gifts the World Wide Web has given parenting

August 23, 2016

It’s 25 years since Tim Berners-Lee opened up public access to the World Wide Web, which paved the way for modern Internet communications as we know it. So here’s 25 gifts the Internet has given modern parenting:

25 gifts the internet has given parents

  1. Googling ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Including:
  2. Am I suppose to be feeling *that* at 38 weeks?
  3. How will I know when I’m in labour? And is labour likely to hurt a bit more than period pains?
  4. Why oh why won’t my child sleep?
  5. And why is everyone else’s child asleep? And everyone else in the world but me?
  6. What’s the magical answer to that baby thing that’s of crucial importance to me that I’m totally and utterly obsessed with at the time, but can’t for the life of me remember now they’re a toddler?
  7. Will my belly button always look this weird?
  8. And moving on from Google, it’s a platform to be a baby bore to the whole wide world…as well as
  9. Company during the night feeds
  10. Company during naptime and day feeds and all the many, many times you’re trapped on the sofa under a feeding or sleeping baby
  11. Out-for-dinner-distractions (thanks, YouTube and your millions of weird egg-opening videos)
  12. A couple more minutes sleep in the morning (thanks, iPlayer)
  13. Creating a virtual village of other parents to help, support and advise you through tough and difficult times, and cheer you on during the good, from message boards to Twitter and beyond
  14. Creative inspiration for most things, from taking better photos through to IKEA hacks for children’s bedrooms and recipes for breakfast and all those compeletely failed craft projects which at least have killed loads of time. And created lots of mess
  15. Rainy day ideas when you’re trapped in the house and everyone’s bouncing off the walls
  16. A way of keeping in touch when you’re on your own, all day, with no-one but your really un-chatty three-month-old and some ducks in the park for company, when you otherwise wouldn’t have had a clue about ridiculous memes or cat videos or bizarre things that have happened that used to be the highlight of your day when you worked in an office
  17. A way of keeping in touch when you parent away from your own parents, meaning you can instantly upload another totally-adorable-but-identical photo to your private album or send them videos of amazing, pivotal, milestone moments they otherwise wouldn’t have seen, like your two children singing ‘London’s Burning’ while wearing bowls on their heads
  18. Friendship
  19. A place to rant and vent (especially as it can be a platform for more terrible parenting advice and parental judgement, especially around parents and internet use. And bad advice from Dr Google. And it ruins your attention span. What was I saying?)
  20. Reassurance, often when you really need it, for those bad times and awful times and comedically funny ones, and at 3am
  21. The opportunity to read blogs from hundreds of interesting and funny and creative and fascinating and clever people
  22. For me and many others, a job and a career AND most importantly the chance for me to work flexibly around my family meaning I get to spend more time with them (despite meaning my laptop is now covered in Paw Patrol stickers and I share my desk with three Clangers and an Elsa doll. Who never make tea)
  23. The opportunity to write about my life, and record random memories I’d otherwise forget, write lists like this and this, and posts about completely ridiculous things that happen in my life from this to this, for which I am forever grateful
  24. A million joyful Spotify kitchen discos, listening to everything from the Blue song to strange versions of Shake it Off through to Frozen Fever, again and again and again
  25. This.

Now, shall we go outside? It’s a lovely day! Oh wait, terrible wifi…

P.S. really old photo with tiny Eliza!

More posts…everything from childhood my children will never know and everything they don’t tell you in NCT classes (but totally should)

 

1 Comments

  • mummyofboygirltwins

    August 27, 2016 at 11:53 am

    No way? THAT long wow. Makes me feel old 😉 Love this and agree…thank goodness for iPads. What did our parents do! xx

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Prev Post Next Post