When we have a bad day or a bad parenting moment, many of us share it with our friends. We regale them in our worst moments to vent, get it off our chest and have someone tell us that it really isn’t that bad.
But we forget that those intimate details can linger in our friends minds long after the instance has passed. Take our friend Jackie, who was mortified when her daughter spit on a play date. She shared her angst with a friend on a regular walk, also venting about other challenges with her child. Months later when the same friend told her that she did not want to encourage a friendship between their daughters because of the spitting and other issues she had mentioned, she realized her mistake. “At the time, I was so frustrated that I needed to vent. In hindsight, I should be more careful about sharing my children’s shortcomings.”
Has this ever happened to you? Share your thoughts!
Be careful about over-sharing
When we have a bad day or a bad parenting moment, many of us share it with our friends. We regale them in our worst moments to vent, get it off our chest and have someone tell us that it really isn’t that bad.
But we forget that those intimate details can linger in our friends minds long after the instance has passed. Take our friend Jackie, who was mortified when her daughter spit on a play date. She shared her angst with a friend on a regular walk, also venting about other challenges with her child. Months later when the same friend told her that she did not want to encourage a friendship between their daughters because of the spitting and other issues she had mentioned, she realized her mistake. “At the time, I was so frustrated that I needed to vent. In hindsight, I should be more careful about sharing my children’s shortcomings.”
Has this ever happened to you? Share your thoughts!