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#happymemories?

Ongoing studies show the negative impact that social media has particularly on young people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and depression. And I can't help thinking, with the abundance of idyllic family images online enjoying #familytime, does this extend to parenting too?

Having returned from a week at the beach with the kids, I was browsing through my photos and came across one that made me smile for two reasons. At a first glance, the photo is of my kids deeply engrossed in their own conversation on a family day out and while this was, at that moment, a #happymemory the story that lead up to this moment was in fact, quite a different one........
Not long into our expedition, my youngest slipped into a rock pool. Upon my attempts to rescue him, I too proceeded to slip into the rock pool (at which point I may have uttered an expletive....) - Cue - Wet socks and shoes and we hadn't even made it off the beach.
Having just about negotiated our way across seaweed encrusted rocks to continue our trek, my eldest decided to push his brother into a fence. To which said child decided he'd had enough and turned to run home. Despite threats of loss of the promised 99 ice cream later on, he continued to venture home (at remarkable speed). Cue my husband having to sprint after him and bring him back.
The great thing about kids though, is they have the amazing ability to "break state" and live in the moment. So upon the return of said child, they immediately took off running together having spotted more adventures ahead, drama completely forgotten. Myself and my husband grumbled on for a while (this wasn't turning out to be the perfect #familytime we'd envisaged) but the kids happiness was contagious and we managed to let go, enjoy the rest of our outing, with a well earned 99 at the end!!

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