Tuesday 12 March marks the World Wide Web’s 30th Birthday and like many 30 year olds is has faced innumerable changes and challenges and is sure to have many ahead.
Last week, thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s invention, I was, like many parents out there, cursing the day which is affectionately known as World Book Day, whilst pouring over eBay, Pinterest and Googling www.besteasycheapworldbookdaycostumeswithfreepostage.co.uk (ha ha you wish!) and it got me thinking about life as a mum with the web access that we have now.
While we can all acknowledge that there are negative sides, I don’t think I would find many people (under age of 75) who would argue that we are not in a better place with the web at our fingertips.
As a mum, I am eternally grateful for the information available to me.
Before kids my internet use was in large part social – booking tickets to events, takeaways, candy crush…When I was pregnant, I used it for booking appointments, planning fastest route to the hospital, and checking what fruit my unborn child most resembled at any given month.
Once my littles arrived it was anything from checking poo colours to mastitis, online shopping for ‘emergency’ chocolate, endless boxsets on Netflix, Kindle books and ALL the friends and family birthday/Christmas presents from Amazon Prime.
Next came Netflix and YouTube for ‘them’ instead of me. I spent hours pouring over Pinterest for “Toddler Craft Ideas for 15 months” (NOTE – Only my first born, 2nd child gets cereal box and pot of glitter…) I surfed the web for local schools, days out, best scooter/bike.
Then there is running our household. Online banking, all the shopping, bill swapping, theatre booking, stain removing (help). Even buying our house was primarily online – I can’t imagine moving to a new area pre-internet (we moved from London to Gravesend) I could write a whole separate blog about how the Web has enabled me to work from home.
As if all that wasn’t wonderful enough we have our fantastic community of MOLOs who can collectively answer questions such as “Will my child ever sleep through in the first 5 years?” (Probably not) “How can I wean my child from breastfeeding?” (Marmite!) and “I feel like a rubbish mum, what can I do?” (Nothing more, you are wonderful and doing a brilliant job – Keep it up!).
But it’s not all rainbow (coloured Little Bird clothing) and Kittens (on YouTube). Whilst speeding up so many of life’s chores it has also been known to reduce my productivity.
Not that it’s the Web’s fault but I have spent more time than I would like to admit reading hundreds of answers to MOLO questions that have little or no bearing on my life. Breastfeeding tips – I know them all now, but finished BF a year ago. I have all the Center Parcs hacks logged in my brain but no plans to go in the next year or two. At least the twenty-odd World Book Day costume pictures I have saved from others might actually be useful. Next year. For Lent I decided to quit Instagram and Rummikub on my phone so that I might start getting through my book pile.
So Happy 30th Birthday World Wide Web. May your 30s be your best years yet.
Could we parent without you? Absolutely. Do I want to?
No thanks 🙂
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