There’s a distinction between parents who are garnering sympathy for themselves and parents who reach for sympathy for their children. We’re all personally familiar with respiratory illness. Why do we need proof of it rubbed in our faces, and why do some parents need to hear “poor baby!” recited over and over again by their friends? Can’t we just get through cold and flu season or allergy season without propping up sick kids for attention? A strand of snot is not a revelation; it’s a gross-out tactic. Daily updates about a child’s common cold aren’t necessary; they’re histrionic. And the further parents push these things — snapping close-ups of snot bubbles, sinks and toilets filled with vomit or their kid lying in a hospital bed — the more side-eye they receive from their friends.
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Being around a small child requires a lot of face-wiping and nose-blowing, but unlike the “mysteries” of baby poop (weird colors! terrifying textures! projectile-related nightmares!), snot amazes no one. There’s nothing remarkable about it, no matter how thick the viscosity or how long it dangles from a kid’s nostrils. Plus, it takes less time to wipe a kid’s nose than it does to snap a picture, so every example marks an occasion when a parent chose option A over option B. Sometimes the attention-grab is even grosser than the updates themselves because the posts don’t stop until the kid’s week-long cold goes away. And while I’m in favor of telling someone that a picture of their kid’s mucus is barf-inducing, I’m not entirely convinced it will do much good.
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