Colman Noctor: Why do we share pictures of our children online? 

It's a mistake to believe the amount of social media engagement we get is an indicator of how good a parent we are

Picture: iStock 

I recently saw a meme that read: ‘I wish my kids would leave me alone while I repeatedly refresh Facebook to see who liked my post about my kids’.

Why do we share posts of our children online? Is it simply a benign pride in who they are and what they are doing, or are there other self-serving motives? This is a topic that can be divisive as it can make some feel people morally superior to others and prompt others to react by suggesting the ‘morally superior parents’ need to ‘lighten up’.