“Mum did you just Instagram the baby’s dinner??”

Well, actually I use YouFood, but yes I did.
Social media saturation – epitomised by hipsters photographing their cappuccinos – is widely accused of damaging users mental health. However this social media habit keeps me sane in the Sisyphean task of serving delicious balanced dinners to my children.

My children each only willingly eat a handful of foods. The intersection of these foods is smaller still. I understand that imprinting on certain foods very strongly is a component of autistic spectrum disorder – but I didn’t want to set myself up for a lifetime of re-heating Captain Birdseye – so I persevere.
I serve the food, I insist on table manners but I don’t force them to eat or get emotional about it. Then I scrape perfect little meals into the bin. I stay sane by eating the lovely grub alongside them – so I’m confident it’s good. And I stay sane by posting a beautifully framed photograph of the food on my YouFood feed. I don’t care if anyone else looks at it.  The rejected food looking vomitous in the garbage; the faces of my children looking bilious as I serve it; it’s a better last image to carry from my effort.

* Going into my YouFood to get some images to illustrate this post – I see that I am unfairly accused – and I normally photograph my own food. Which is a perfectly normal thing to do of course (!) The kids dinners have the same ingredients but were served in little molehill mounds of individual items to avoid contaminating a borderline acceptable foodstuff with an utterly unacceptable foodstuff. And obviously I haven’t logged the ‘bowl of plain pasta with cheese on the side’ staples we actually live on.