Do you lose yourself for hours in blogs, social networking sites, message boards and other mom-related internet outlets? So much so that you find yourself forgoing television, books -- even time with your family -- for the internet? If so, you may be falling prey to internet addiction, which, according to parenting.com, is becoming more and more common among new moms.
As someone who works in online education media, I was no stranger to the internet when I became a mom. I was an early adopter of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social media/networking services. I created my first website when I was fifteen (and I won't tell you how long ago that was). When we were planning to get pregnant, and throughout my pregnancy, I utilized these types of sites heavily. I frequented mommy message boards, mommy blogs and parenting websites endlessly until my daughter was born.
During her first few weeks of life, I found myself longing for the freedom to surf the web for hours as I once had. It was an escape from all the changes taking place. I could connect with other moms my age, who had babies my daughter's age -- not just to make sure I wasn't totally screwing her up, but to commiserate about the experience of becoming a mom and all the changes that go along with it. I think we all knew that becoming a mom would change our lives drastically, but speaking from my own experience, there's no way to know until you're in the moment how hormones will color that experience.
But then I returned to work, and found my hours with family to be limited. It was then that I decided that after I arrived home, until my daughter was sound asleep, it was family time. The computer was simply off-limits. Most of the time, it still is. I have learned, and now enjoy being disconnected from the web and connected to my family.
Feel free to share your experiences with internet use in your household by posting a comment!
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