Dear Snarky,
I’m really mad about something and when I told some friends what I was mad about they said I was overreacting and should take what happened as a compliment.
I have a four-year-old daughter who is very into doing gymnastics. She also has a pre-school friend who she likes to go to park with. I recently found out that her friend’s mom, who I thought I liked, has been taking the girls to the park and having my daughter do all her gymnastics tricks and making TikTok videos about my daughter.
This “friend” is also a wannabe social media influencer, so she’s also been using my 4-year-old in other social media posts. For example, she had my daughter wear some clothes from a local kids store and had her doing a handspring with the caption – “Flipping out over this store.”
I’m not on social media a lot and I don’t have a TikTok so I didn’t find out about it until other people start mentioning to me about how they loved seeing my daughter do gymnastics on this woman’s TikTok. I then got on a friend’s TikTok and was furious when I saw how many times she had posted stuff with my daughter without asking my permission or even telling me.
When I confronted this woman, she told me that it’s no big deal and she would have told me but “I didn’t have a TikTok” so she didn’t think it “mattered.” She also said I should thank her because “she’s making my daughter famous” and the stuff she’s posted with my daughter always get the “a ton of views.”
I told her to immediately take down anything on her social media with my daughter and left it at that but now my other friends are giving me shit about overreacting. Personally, I don’t think I reacted enough.
Signed, Pissed Off Parent
Dear Parent,
Your friends are wrong as in W-R-O-N-G! No one should post anything with a child on social media without their parent’s permission. What this woman did is super shady. She used your very young daughter’s gymnastic prowess to get likes, views, etc and build her social media standing.
To be very clear she wasn’t making your daughter “famous” she was trying to make herself “famous.” This woman sounds like a train wreck, and not only would I distance my entire family from her I would also add some teeth to your request to remove anything with your daughter in it from her social media accounts. And by that, I mean have an attorney send her a certified letter telling her to do so immediately.
As a parent you should never be made to feel guilty or second guess your decisions regarding your child’s right to privacy. Not every mom want’s her kid to be a social media sensation or a one meme wonder. You did the right thing and need to proudly tell anyone who tries to argue that point with you to F off.
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