'A window into somebody's home' - Psychotherapist shares opinion on parent influencers

A psychotherapist specialising in child and parent relationships has shared her thoughts on family influencers and whether it's great for business or child exploitation. 

Joanna Fortune described as being "like a window into somebody else's home." 

Family influencers tend to be mostly females aged between 25 and 35, according to a report by Sarah Madden for The Pat Kenny Show. 

“If you look at the Irish market, you have a load of women who are focussing on family life and posting a lot about their children,” Journalist, Filomena Kaguaku, said. 

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Joanna said these posts can make parents feel seen and heard, especially when it comes to first-time-parents.

"Isolation and loneliness are one of the biggest mental health issues for new mothers and new parents so absolutely that is a time when you are more likely to lean into online content," she said. 

She added that this is particularly the case when friends and people around you are at different stages in life and may already have had children or don't plan to for another while. 

Seeing mothers on social media with a similar life to theirs allows them to feel what Joanna described as a "psuedo-friendship." 

However, as much as she understands the concept, she feels it is "not in the children's best interest." 

Joanna recalled being at an event where she saw two children that she was able to identify from social media.

She knew their names, what class they were in, and what school they went to, despite not personally knowing the family.

"I knew particulars about their family but I do not know that family," she said. 

Julia Hayes is a single mother of twins and goes by 'twinsandme' on social media.

She has over 400,000 followers across all platforms and says she wanted to show "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of parenting. 

"There’s often days that I come on and say “Oh my god I actually can’t deal with my kids today, I’m going to give them away," she said. 

She added that she likes to show the reality of being a parent so she posts online when she's happy but also when she's overwhelmed.

Generally, it is when she posts the struggles that she gets messages from people thanking her for being so honest and sharing that they thought they were alone in the difficulties of parenthood.

In 2022, Julia was able to quit her full-time job and focus only on social media as a way to make money. 

She added that her children love being on camera and often ask her to post them doing fun things or cool tricks. 

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Sarah Madden. who did the report, also spoke to people on the streets of Ireland to garner their thoughts, which were quite mixed. 

One person said "from a human point of view, you can see why they do well,” while another described parent influencing as "dangerous and weird." 

"Those pictures get into the wrong hands and they can be used by other people," they said. 

Others said they feel as though parents earning money from content of their children is child exploitation and a parent's way to take advantage of them.

Parenting influencer Julia says you'll never make everyone happy so do what's best for you and your family.