A few months ago I ranted about the occasional mommy influencer spending too much time on her insta-stories, and not enough time paying attention to her kids. Well, this may be part 2 of that rant as I’ve made a new observation over the summer months.

Many of these influencers are concerned about being hands-free while recording their stories in the car, making a point of noting that they are in the passenger seat or parked while posting. But my eye has recently been drawn to the back seat. Where many of their kids are sitting without car seats. And these are children as young as five years old. What. Is. Up. With. That?! Seriously, I am totally perplexed as people don’t even think twice about posting insta-stories where they are not only breaking the law, but putting their kids in real danger.

Now I may have only noticed this on a few accounts but the more prevalent transgression seems to happen more often on the lake in the country, on a boat. Kids as young as two years old without life jackets on?! I seriously don’t get it. Put down your phones for a minute and strap a life vest on your kids. Because you sure as heck will drop that phone if there was an accident (or even a rough wave) and they happened to fall out of the boat.

Sorry to be a total debbie downer but this has totally perplexed me, and some of my other insta-friends, this summer. It makes me so uncomfortable when I see stories like these that I feel like speaking up. Most of the time, the culprits are mommy influencer strangers who I really don’t know, and it’s totally not my place to speak up. Or is it?

Have you ever contacted someone you follow on social media to criticize their parenting style or point out that they are committing an offence which could inevitably harm their child? I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this one as its been plaguing my scrolling this summer and making me think twice about my role as an insta- follower.