The right to choose

My friends and regular followers of my blog, Twitter and Facebook will know that I have no problem bearing all in these very public spaces. I do self-censor on occasions but I tend to be a big of a WYSIWYG kind of person. This is a choice I have made for myself. I made it with eyes wide open, fully conscious of the risks and benefits involved. I felt, and still do, that I need to be me…in my entirety. Not compartmentalised. Not choosing which parts of me are fit for public consumption and which parts are to be kept in a locked box, forever hidden from view.

No. I needed to be all or nothing. So I chose all.

I could wax lyrical on this point but this is not the main point of this post.

The point of this post is that choosing to bear all in a public social media space is something that should be left to each individual to determine for themselves. Not a choice that should be made by one person on behalf of another.

Sounds reasonable, yes?

In December 2013, I read an article which had been shared on Facebook by a couple of my friends. Please take the time to read it. It touched me deeply. I found myself agreeing with it paragraph after paragraph.

I was already one month pregnant when I read this and had already decided that I would be quite discerning about what I was going to post about my pregnancy and about this precious child I am carrying. I decided that scans and photographs were fine to be shown to friends where they could be seen, enjoyed and then pass into the mists of memory; not to be posted into the permanent record that is the Internet.

I want to give respect to the choices that I can’t make for my child. He or she should not be denied the opportunity to choose their own approach to personal moments. I might be a “live life out loud” kind of person but that doesn’t mean that my child will have that same personality. I guess we will just have to wait and see who this little person is. Until then…