Hello! Welcome to SocialMum.com. We’re so glad you stopped by. We wanted to share a bit about the writers for Social Mum.
There are now five of us bloggers contributing to this site. We are all girlfriends and moms, living across the United States. Our children are all different ages, from four to 28.
We derive many of stories and posts from what we see online and encounter in real life. We aren’t sharing our full names so that we can keep our posts confidential. While we always strive to be professional, our intent would never be to single anyone out, and we certainly wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Some of us are more outspoken than the others. Yet, we all believe there are some things you shouldn’t say, especially on social media… hence, our name: Social Mum. It also stands for all the mums and moms working hard to raise their families.
We hope you enjoy our musings about being a mom and raising kids in this digital age.
We write a lot about how adults use social media, particularly Facebook — our favorite. We’re all active on Instagram and Pinterest too. Some of us are also on Twitter, Snapchat, and the other social platforms, learning the inner workings and norms. But really, it’s hard to keep up with it all.
We are sort of obsessed with social behaviors and hope some of our posts will resonate with you. As girlfriends and moms, we try to relate with what people go through on social media.
Of course, social media is great at times but other times, it brings us down. Sometimes our feelings get hurt. It’s common to see things we aren’t invited to or posts we’re not tagged in. It sometimes feels like everyone has a better life than we do! We’ve learned it’s common to feel this way at times.
There’s pettiness on social media too. People unfriend and block each other. They withhold Likes. It’s interesting to see who Likes your posts but more interestingly, who rarely does.
There’s often more than meets the eye, isn’t there? Sometimes there is overt drama but most often there are subtle power plays and mind games.
Why we started socialmum.com
We hope you will feel the way we do on some topics. Laugh with us! Perhaps we can offer some insight or help you to feel less alone.
There’s lots to deal with regarding social media: mind games, power plays, someone having the upper hand, etc.
One day we got to talking about social media and how we never really like to acknowledge one of our mutual Facebook friend’s posts. Each one of us purposely didn’t like her post because we find her to be too perfect, too popular, and too boastful in her posts. After disclosing this to each other — You do that too?! — we decided to come together to blog about it. We knew if all five of us felt this way about one too perfect mean mom with her 1,000 Facebook friends, gorgeous husband and kids, and a seemingly perfect life… others were doing this too.
After all, us mums are in this together. Aren’t we all trying our very best in this amped-up age of socializing online?
So cozy up on the couch, stay in bed a little longer, or procrastinate whatever you should be doing, and know you are not alone. Hopefully you will relate to much of what we notice and write about.
We are the Social Mums… bios
Shelly
One of the primary contributors to this site, Shelly, is a mum with three cubs. Facebook has been a blessing, enabling her to keep up with friends near and far.
Shelly loves reading, organizing, running with her husband, exercising with her family, playing games, drinking decaf coffee, and finding new gluten free foods. She’s learned a lot being on Whole30 many times.
She enjoys social media for the ease in being able to stay in contact with so many people, saying Happy Birthday on Facebook, and learning new things from her friends’ posts.
She and some of her lovely girlfriends started www.SocialMum.com because they were often noticing people sharing lots of info on Facebook. So much so that they started texting each other: Mum please! From there, they created this site.
Sheila
As one of the founders of SocialMum.com, Sheila has a journalism background. She now works from home, editing educational and financial journals. Forever involved in her kids’ schools, she has two teenagers and lives in the east coast.
She’s interested in volunteering at her children’s schools, having mom meet ups, organizing play dates, meeting and keeping girlfriends when you’re a busy adult, and ways to limit electronics.
Kate
An avid reader and writer, Kate contributes to various websites across the land with her humor and wit. She lives in the Denver area with her clan of kids and five dogs. She has moved a lot with her family and has learned tons from the experience, mostly about who is who wherever she blossoms.
Kate is amazing at adapting to whatever comes her way. She is no-nonsense and will tell it like it is. She credits her advanced psychology degree with her ability to read people and their motives.
Jennie
There’s Jennie who finds humor in the mundane and brings a love of statistics and irony to her posts. You will find her substituting at her children’s school, gardening, or hanging out online. She’s recently started keeping bees and has three hives. (Her sister, Brit, wrote for SocialMum.com early on and still occasionally blogs for us as well. But has taken a Facebook break.)
Jennie enjoys traveling to National Parks with her family. She’s exceptionally social and loves bringing people together with her annual block party, her monthly book club, a bunco group, and a weekly walking group with her friends and neighbors. She learns a lot about dynamics shift when people hang out with different people. Her friends know she blogs for socialmum.com and often share stories with her.
Paula
Meet our newest contributor, Paula. She has four children, spanning the ages of elementary school to post college. She and her family have moved a lot. They’ve been involved with 18 schools to date! Read her posts about getting involved in your child’s school and making and keeping mom friends when you move.
She loves drawing, traveling, and trying new recipes. Baking and wine tasting are among her favorite things to do as well. She’s still BFF’s with a friend she met in preschool!
Love us with your Likes
We welcome your ideas and love reading about extraordinary Facebook posts and other social media posts you’ve seen. So please email us at mum@socialmum.com to share your what you’ve seen in your Newsfeed.
We love all things Facebook and would love to know how it plays a role in your life. Please Like us on Facebook too. After all, we love to get more Likes!
Mum’s the word,
Shelly, Sheila, Kate, Jennie, and Paula