Erin Napier Doesn’t Let Daughters Use Social Media After Trolls ‘Criticized’ Their Looks as Babies

usmagazine.com:

Erin Napier is making a conscious effort to keep her daughters off social media after her experience with online critics.Erin, 37 — who shares daughters Helen, 5, and Mae, 2, with husband Ben Napier — explained the parenting decision in an essay published via Today.com on Tuesday, August 1.“When my daughter Helen, who’s now 5, was very young, I posted a picture of her, and someone criticized the way she looked.

It made me see red. It made my blood boil,” she shared. “And it seems like the criticism always comes from other women. It feels like betrayal when a fellow mother has the gall to criticize your child or your parenting.”Erin went on to share that when Helen was first born, she and Ben, 39 — who cohost HGTV’s Home Town — made an “informal agreement” with three other families “to support each other in keeping our kids off social media and smartphones at large.”The mom of two emphasized that she doesn’t want her daughters to be “disconnected” and plans to get them phones with music-playing capabilities once they are old enough to drive.In order to view the video, please allow Manage CookiesErin and Ben — who tied the knot in 2008 — further committed to their principles by launching the nonprofit Osprey in July along with friends Catherine Sledge and Taylor Sledge.

Per the organization’s website, Osprey aims to “help our kids achieve social media-free childhoods until they graduate high school.”Erin wrote via Today.com that she was inspired to start the nonprofit after a friend’s daughter felt “like an outcast” as the only kid in her friend group without social media. “It made me think, why don’t we just give this idea that we formed with three other families a name, where people can have support in keeping their kids