Rude mommy: Multimedia Mom
"Would a young mother describe twenty or thirty cunning tricks and sayings of the baby to a bachelor who has been helplessly put beside her at dinner [...]?" Emily Post
So opens a post on mommy email etiquette, brought to you by Emaily Post, a netiquette-fixated gal whose blog advises people on decorum in email.
Some months ago I was moved to write on my personal blog about a particularly prolific species of rude mommy: the Multimedia Mommy. She's the mom who sends you 50 hi-res jpegs of her tot (freshly born and in full meconium-tinted glory). Multimedia Mom might also mass-mail pix of an early fetal sonogram. To everyone in her email address book, including her pediatrician (and the customer service department of Ebay).
I didn't think I had anything new to say on the subject, until I received a note from Emaily Post. Emaily herself has done a snippet on the Multimedia Mommy, only her piece is far more succinct, direct, and helpful than mine.
Highlights from Emaily Post's tips on creating offspring-centric email updates that won't go straight to the Trash:
Segment Your Audience.
Yes, I said it, even when it comes to baby updates good old segmentation applies. While grandparents can't get enough of their little muffin, most friends would be satisfied with only periodic updates.Less is More.
I am just as prone to snapping endless photos as the next mum, but let's try and keep in mind that no one wants to see 151 photographs of little Madison or Charlie trick-or-treating. Pick a handful to share, a dozen if you must, but spare your friends from endless slideshows (remember they don't make fun of slideshows for nothing!).
Anyone else have a multimedia mommy spamming your inbox? Or (gasp!) are you one yourself? Attack it, defend it, tell me what you think of it.
Ahh, so true! My family is spread far and wide across the country and yes, I email pictures to them about once a season or holiday (Spring 2008 or Fall/Halloween 2007, etc) and each "album" contains about 30-50 pictures. My dear cousin, on the other hand, sends 150+ pictures of her child for every outing they attend (At the Zoo/Park/Museum, etc)even inappropriate potty or tub pictures or my favorite "look how cute she is drinking out of Daddy's empty beer can". Yuck, it's called editting and common sense people!!!
sueroz,
full disclosure: Crabhubby has been know to get a little too jiggy with the jpegs when it comes to emailing pix of his beloved Crabtot. I have had to lecture him about this. He who deletes everyone else's spammy tot-filled emails on sight! yet he expects everyone else to fawn over his clusters of Crabtot shots! Rude daddy! that should be the title of my next post! :)
What about family blogs or websites? I try to spare my friends and family from inbox overload. Instead, I frequently update our blog with photos and, what I'm sure are quite riveting anecdotes about the daily minutia of life at home with a toddler. I tell myself this is less rude and annoying and self-promoting since those who are interested can check in via my blog if they choose, and those who are going to gag if they have to see one more photo, can keep on surfing for porn or whatever. Am I fooling myself?
mamaboo,
I think that is most sensible! But who am I to say? I myself am quite terribly rude. My poor friends receive blob-pimping massmails at least every month. I try to stick to those who I really think might want to read my blog and/or those who are so good to me that they will endure all manner of harassment. As I said when I started Rude Mommy, I am not exempt form needing an etiquette brush-up from time to time.
But hey, at least never scanned my 5-mo. sonogram and uploaded it as a hi-res attachment...right? :)
Mamaboo, blogs and family web sites are great. It's a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, esp ones across the country, in a way that allows them more control when to check in and without crashing their email with 150 snapshots. And don't be gun shy about sending a shout out once in a while when blog is updated with new materials.
Cheers,
Emaily
Thanks, Crabmom. I'm reassured. I also think it should be noted that I resisted the urge to sign off with a link to my blog.
How about those crappy 'alert' emails, --See mars! (no. THAT was 4 years ago!) Or the hoax kind about Starbucks refusing to send coffee to soldiers in Iraq. I call these, newby to email spam. It's new to them, but I've seen it 5 times in three different forms! The worst part? Most of it comes from my MOM! How do I tell her--'STOP, you are just plain ANNOYING!'.
Photos are nothing - my sister emails me the TIMES -as in 3minutes 5o seconds for example -of her daughter's swimming laps.
I KID YOU NOT!
Your child is obviously young still - so I warn you now - STAY AWAY FROM SWIMMING PARENTS. They're crazy.
She actually emails them to me in spreadsheet format so that I can see the competitors times too.
YOu'd think that I must have - somehow- encouraged this - but I have not! I have not!
http://www.opinionated-female.blogspot.com
I have a blog for our baby so the family can keep updated. I wasn't sending out those "hey, read the blog" emails, but then my father asked that I remind him whenever I update the blog. After I gave a lecture about a blog being an internet journal and that he should just check it, I decided to compromise. I send out a "hey, read the blog" reminder about once a month (I update our blog about 2x/wk). It seems to work, and those people on the list act appreciative. What is crazy though is that I still receive emails asking me for pictures?! Seriously? I spend all this time on the blog and that's too much trouble for people to check...they want pictures emailed to them personally?! I just tell them to check the blog. :-)
aally, that's funny. an interesting twist on the problem. opinonated mom, ha! swimming vid sounds like a big fat sucker of data for the old inbox. poor you!
ad deborah--stay away from swimming parents? heck, yeah! See my mini-series for freaky infant swimming stuff and general crabacious grumpiness about swimming in my blog archives. The posts are called "Can everyone please stop swimming?" and are in the "General Momming" category of the archives, should you feel so inclined. There's a super-frky video for you in the following:
http://www.cookiemag.com/magazine/blogs/crabmommy/2007/11/can-everyone-pl.html
And sorry about the typos, Deboarh and everyone else. Goodness me, I'm sloppy today.