Stroll the Marketplace of Parenting Content
Discover what tomatoes and parenting advice have in common
Welcome to a post of the Navigating the Noise series. What’s that you ask?
A series focused on navigating the noisy world of parenting advice. Approaching parenting content through a lens of influence, culture, media trends and a variety of perspectives.
You can check out previous posts about navigating the noise here.
As spring is here, it’s time for the farmer’s market. Our whole family enjoys this spring/summer pastime, mainly because we buy large quantities of bread. Bread pleases all members of my family and we have to find our shared interests where we can.
Lettuce us experiment
It’s time for an experiment.
What if we pictured all the parenting content we consume as set in a farmer’s market? Every stall a business selling it wares (ideas and products). All of it, including:
your favorite social media account
your most anticipated parenting newsletter (this one of course)
the book that lies on your nightstand
the podcast you just listened to in the car
the article you read online
Does this feel icky or uncomfortable? It doesn’t necessarily need to be. There are likely many relationships you have with businesses that are positive and trustworthy. It doesn’t mean that everyone is out to only take your money. Viewing parenting content as part of a business can be a helpful exercise in creating space and inviting you to be a conscious consumer across media. Let’s say one Sunday, your favorite vegetable vendor starts selling underwear. You might pause and wonder about their new product. You might consider whether you want to buy their tomatoes. Maybe it’s not a problem because the tomatoes are great or the underwear looks comfortable. Or maybe you start to question how the tomatoes and underwear are transported to the market and you decide you are going to other stall. It’s your choice.
Take a stroll instead of a scroll
On an episode of the Under the Influence podcast with
, guest Caroline Burke and Jo Piazza discuss media literacy and the helpfulness of viewing social media accounts as brands.They highlight how social media blurs the lines for consumers. It’s easy to form para-social relationships with accounts, but these accounts are also trying to sell something. When you recognize this, you are better able to assess the content. It’s not only for tangible products, this holds true for ideas too.
Time to stroll the market. Go through your social media feed and categorize every account that is not purely a friend or family as a business:
even the accounts you love
even the accounts that make you laugh
even the accounts have been really useful
even your cousin who sells homemade candles
even the local library or community organization that you support
even the accounts that have no tangible products like courses, podcasts, books, but only information/ ideas
It will change the way you see your feed. It may feel uncomfortable when it comes to those whom you really like, those who have helped you or those whose mission feels very aligned with your values. It doesn’t have to be yucky. Do you get angry with the vegetable vendor at the farmer’s market? How dare they sell their lettuce that they worked hard to grow and want others to eat?! We are in a marketplace whether we want to be or not (thanks capitalism). Even when there is not money exchanged, there is attention and influence at play. We are becoming more savvy at recognizing influencers with brand deals who are trying to get you to buy things. However, it is still difficult to pull apart the role of marketing and influence for all types of businesses, organizations and individuals. Increased awareness can allow us to have more honest relationships with what we are consuming. And if you find now using this lens, someone does seem questionable, that is a good gut check telling you something about whether or not you want to give your attention to them.
This doesn’t need to diminish your joy either. You pay for joy all the time. You go to the movies, you buy a funny book or you pay the fee to hike in the national park. Be conscious of joy and what type of content is connected to joy.
So if it’s all a business…is there a better parenting content bureau?
If only there was a Better Business Bureau of parenting content. Organizations like the Better Business Bureau state their mission as:
Setting standards for marketplace trust
Encouraging and supporting best practices by engaging with and educating consumers and businesses
Celebrating marketplace role models
Calling out and addressing substandard marketplace behavior
Creating a community of trustworthy businesses and charities
That all sounds like it could be pretty helpful in the parent-scape. There are role models and trustworthy sources out there and let’s celebrate them. And the more we call out the substandard, the more we help each other. I know I am unlikely to shut up about it anytime soon. Let’s keep working and do better for parents instead of telling parents they need to be better.
Let’s talk about the psychologist in the market
So here I am encouraging you to view everyone as a business as you read my newsletter. It would be rather ridiculous to not hold myself to this standard. So yes, I am in there too. I have ideas to share and I want them to be read. And creating a business that aligns with my values is very important to me. By acknowledging this marketplace, I can more accurately focus on showing up in a values aligned way and recognizing my influence.
I want you to consider my tomatoes but to be completely honest…I would be the stall that sells pie—that is much more me.
Just a little reminder: The content on Mindful Mom in the Mud posted by Dr. Kathryn Barbash, PsyD on the Instagram account (@mindfulmominthemud), Youtube Channel (@mindfulinthemud) and newsletter (mindfulinthemud.substack.com) or any other medium or social media platform is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical, clinical, legal and professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. Reliance on any information provided by Mindful Mom in the Mud is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your licensed mental health professional or other qualified health provider.
Share what you are thinking about the marketplace?
Leave a comment and let’s start a better content bureau.
This is such a great reframe. I teach a course to high schoolers and young adults and ask them all the time what the value exchange is between them and the social media platforms and often they have no idea. They just think it's a fun place to be--without understanding that at the heart of it all is a business. Not just the platform itself, but all the players too.
I loved this. As a therapist that worked hard to be licensed and stay licensed, I do struggle with some content that is out there that is sold as more or less therapy. Let’s use the lettuce farmer- if I showed up at the farmers market to sell my lettuce without ensuring that I used correct practices to grow it, pick it, and haul it to the market, and I am just willy nilly selling it, I’d understand why other lettuce farmers might be upset. They worked hard to ensure they used the best practice standards to get it to the market while I’m just over here making cash without having done the hard work of ensuring what I’m selling is safe to consumers. I’m not sure if that is what you were necessarily getting at with this post, but it triggered this thought. It’s something I think of often with people selling courses that are mental health focused and not necessarily using evidence based practices. If they’re clear that they’re using what works for them then …maybe okay. But it is still tricky in my book.