Whatever carrier or sling they use it doesn’t matter. Whether they wrap or like buckles we don’t care. What we do want to say is thank you for carrying your babies close, and thank you for being you.
Here is a little celebration of the North East’s Babywearing daddies. Happy Father’s Day
Apparently, according to Facebook I need to reply faster my clients. Apparently the fact I replied to 96% of messages in 8 minutes, or if you checked two days ago 100% in 19 and wait even 100% in 6 minutes is not fast enough. Although none of these figures will be shown to users on my page as I don’t yet hit what they class as responsive enough.
We live in a world of 24:7 news, we want our food fast, our media instant and apparently no longer willing to wait. But, surely this “responsive to messages” thing that Facebook is currently adding to pages is one step too far. Are we not allowed a life? How an earth do you get the green “responsive to messages” icon?
This icon is granted to pages that have a median (I had to remember my secondary school maths lessons to figure out what that meant) responsive rate of 90% in 5 minutes over the space of a week. Read Facebooks explanation of how it works here.
I feel I am pretty responsive as it is. I reply to emails, texts, posts and Facebook messages as quickly as I can. I am a primarily a Mum of two and a wife. I do need to sleep, eat, walk dog etc! For emails I aim personably to reply within 2 hours but definitely within 24. I have Facebook on 3 different devices, I reply when I can. I am not going to stop playing with my kids (or sleeping) so that I can reply instantly around the clock.
Over 50% of the messages I get are when I am asleep. The nature of catering to parents of babies is, they will typically be awake at night. This time last year I frequently had conversations with people as I tried to get Isaac to sleep all night. Now, thankfully, I have two children who do sleep and therefore I am not sat on landing catching up with admin at 1,2,3am.
That means messages sent in evenings are not going to be replied to until the next day (usually before 8am). But Facebook doesn’t seem to get that we are human beings not robots. I am not a big corporate business with lots of staff who can reply 24/7 and 365 days a year. You have me, Rachel and my volunteers. Yes, volunteers who like me are allowed to sleep/eat/live too.
The next issue I have is when do the messages stop counting as being responded too. Take for example this common conversation completed via my page message function:
“Can you tell me when next library session is” Reply with dates and times
“Oh that’s great will you have x,y,z sling”
“Yes we have x,y, and z will be back on”
“Thanks, see you on X”
I usually then add a “see you then, any questions ask”…..but frequently they will come back with an “ok”, “thanks” etc. When does it stop. “You hang up”, “no you”. So once I have to ended a conversation as the last one to reply, does that mean I get 100%? What if I decide to not carry on the games of constantly replying? Currently Facebook classes these as not responded too. At least now while I am answering messages via my PC they have allowed me the benefit of prefilled stock responses (and ability to add own). This is great for while I am on computer but it doesn’t yet exist on the app for iPhone or iPad, where I spend almost 80% of my “online” time.
I hope my clients will understand that if I don’t get the iconic “responsive to messages” icon they won’t think I am useless or not focused on their needs. I hope they will realise that I too have a life. That I too need to be able to care for my kids. My part time job is a big part of my life, but it is not the only thing in my life. Facebook, you really need to reasses your priorities, if you think 5 minutes is an acceptable time to wait.
So if I never reach the Facebook holy grail of 90% in 5 minutes, to be honest I don’t think I care. “Control the controllable” is one do the phrases we live by in this house and Facebook algorithms are definitely not controllable.
Edited on 1st July – despite me not doing anything differently in the day I have apparently been deemed worthy of the green message icon. I have started switching message function off at night. Do you think this is the reason. Wonder how long I will keep it for?
…so what do you do if you don’t have one? “It takes a village to raise a child”. It is an old African (various sites suggest Nigerian) proverb and it does make sense. The idea of a collective group helping to raise a child. Mothers, aunties, fathers, uncles, brothers, sisters, even neighbours all helping teach a…
http://thebirthandbabynetwork.com/network-blogger-it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child/
By my calculations there are 23 days until my “baby” turns 3. This assumes you are reading this on the day it was published. Either way my youngest is almost or just turned 3 years old. A fiercely independent preschooler who from September will get 15 hours a week free childcare and who in 17 months…
http://thebirthandbabynetwork.com/network-blogger-why-we-still-sling-at-nearly-three/
For those of you that have read my first two blog posts you will know I am a mum to two boys. They are now 5 and 3 years old. My boys, their daddy and our puppy are my world and I am aware of just how lucky I am. I have had two pregnancies and two “healthy” babies. (Although there have been some issues, which I wrote about in my April Blog Post) I know not everyone is so lucky. But, and there is a big but, I am grieving. I am grieving the breastfeeding relationship I won’t have again. Both boys have were breastfed. It wasn’t something I thought I would do for long when I was pregnant with Henry. I was scared about feeding in public and what my family would say. But my husband was adamant that Henry would be breastfed till 6 months. And do you know what? His insistence that we didn’t have formula in the house “just in case” was the best thing ever. There were days where I had been glued to the sofa with a feeding baby all day and simply wanted somebody else to take over. Days where I just wanted to stop. But I was once told don’t stop on a bad day and, well because there wasn’t an option, I didn’t. Henry was fed until he was 14 months old and we cut feeds down gradually from 12 months. I am immensely proud of this fact. But when he turned a year old my husband and I did start thinking about wanting him to have a brother or sister. I had lactational amenorrhea while feeding and it seemed unlikely that I could continue feeding and have second pregnancy relatively close together. Together we decided to stop. As proud as I was to reach 14 months of feeding, it still hurts that I weaned Henry (who was showing no signs of stopping himself) early. Was it the right or wrong thing to do? I am not sure, I don’t think I ever will be. I found out I was expecting again in August 2011, although we had no idea when Baby 2 would arrive as my cycle had not settled. Our ‘dating scan’ was just that. After a less than ideal pregnancy Isaac arrived 5 days passed his due date in just 18 minutes. He was a good 10 minutes old when paramedics arrived and nearly 40 minutes old when the midwife arrived. We had been booked for a home birth, I didn’t ever think we would be doing it unassisted though. Before the paramedics and midwives arrived Isaac had skin to skin and he had latched. I naively thought our journey would be easy! How wrong could I be! Over the first 72 hours of his life Isaac fed for 50 hours. He didn’t sleep and only settled in my arms (thank heavens for the slings I had at my disposable). I was exhausted and sore. But on Day 5 I thought I was super woman. He was weighed and had not lost any birth weight, he was in fact 10g heavier. As was common at time I was then left by my midwife and received a phone call on day 10. “Is he feeding?”, “Plenty of wet nappies”, “how are you feeling?”. My responses were all positive and we were discharged. I didn’t want to tell her it hurt and he was feeding all day and all night. On Day 11 – he stopped feeding! I didn’t know what to do? Did I ring the postnatal ward (Isaac was a home birth so hadn’t been in it)? I didn’t have community midwives number as it was on my notes and the…
http://thebirthandbabynetwork.com/network-blogger-it-is-time-to-let-it-go/
Slings and More 