Is my SIL exploiting her kids?

Question

I'm trying hard not to judge my SIL. She's a good mom and does what she needs to do for the betterment of her children. BUT...she is very open about the struggles with her youngest son's autism and her middle son's food allergies. She posts pictures on social media (just her private Instagram, she doesn't share this on FB) of her autistic son's meltdowns, captioning the photo 'this is autism' and some lengthy explanation and silver linings of raising an autistic child. She posts photos of her son sobbing his eyes out, with pricks in his back, clearly in pain, after being poked numerous times for allergy tests (he had a recent random reaction ) and captions it 'this is food allergies' and adds a lengthy explanation lecturing about food allergies. I am so upset by these pictures of these children in pain. I feel like she's exploiting them. I don't feel like it's to raise awareness, I feel like it's a way to bring pity and attention to her. I can't fathom taking pictures of my children in these moments, it's just so wrong to me. I don't want to get involved, I will unfollow her if I have to, but is it something I should bring up to her?

Answer

She sounds like an attention whore in my opinion 🤷🏼‍♀️ maybe 1 or 2 pics would be okay but if this is a regular occurrence then yea .

Answer

I don't see anything wrong with it. ahe may be raising awareness on a subject many people don't know of. there's so many people who don't understand autism or allergies. there's many people who act like neither one of them are a big deal. I've seen a lot of comments on social media where people think that people say their child has this or that for attention. maybe it's to raise awareness about what having a child with autism or food allergies goes through. it's easy to judge if you don't have to deal with a child who is "different". I take it as a raw perspective  on what her children go through, which includes maybe uncomfortable things people don't want to see. I get your view though, i hate to see children sad, but I applaud her if she is indeed posting for awareness and not attention.

Answer

My sister posts pics of her son's allergies. It breaks my heart to see him in tears. I don't understand why she's taking pics instead of comforting him. I think camera phones and social media have made people feel like every second of their life needs to be documented, even to the detriment of their kids. No, life isn't all smiles and happiness, and it's good to raise awareness. In your sister in law's case, she could crop the pic to show the allergy pricks, not his pain. But I do understand sometimes it needs to be seen by family members for them to get it. But I'm not sure being passive aggressive on social media is the way to go. It should be addressed with the person who screws up the kids diet or routine. I would personally just unfollow lol...avoid any family drama

Answer

It sounds like she's just trying to bring awareness to whatever issues her child is having + an outlet for herself (which is completely fine considering her situation). Maybe you see it as a negative because you just don't like her lol.

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I'm on the fence. Everyone needs to rant/outlet. My son has developmental delays and food allergies. People close to me don't see the meltdowns or all the drs appointments. to make matters more stressful I have my own family judging me. But guess what? They don't see how spoiling him a weekend affects his week. They don't see how cookies and cakes messes up his stomach FOR WEEKS ON END. They don't see how depressing it is getting him to try to do things for himself or even to communicate to all be undone by one weekend. Being a parent if a child on the spectrum is 1000000000 times more rewarding but also tough. So let her post want she wants. Just because it's not your experience doesn't mean it's exploitation.

Answer

I find it highly inappropriate when people do this. I have a friend who does very similar on Facebook w her child
Who has autism. To me it gives zero privacy and respect to the child. Maybe they don't want their whole medical history online or on social media????!!!

Answer

You can never know for sure.

Is my SIL exploiting her kids?

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