Blogger criticised for birthday message to son who 'statistically' underperforms on Instagram

Words by Elizabeth Di Filippo.

An Atlanta mum blogger is causing a stir on Twitter after writing a questionable birthday post about her six-year-old son.

Earlier this week, BuzzFeed News‘s deputy director Sarah McGreal Tweeted a screen shot of an Instagram post from lifestyle blogger Katie Bower.

In a post that has since been deleted, Bower shared a birthday message to her six-year-old son, Weston, which made mention of the fact that out of all of her five children, the young boy statistically underperforms on social media.

Seriously.

“I am gonna be perfectly honest,” Bower wrote. “Instagram never liked my Munchkin and it killed me inside. His photos never got as many likes. Never got comments. From a statistical point of view, he wasn’t as popular with everyone out there.

Bower, who shares photos of her family on her Bower Power Blog, attributed her child’s lack of Instagram fame to the fact that “people like babies” and her younger children attract more likes.

“I want to believe that it wasn’t him…that it was on me,” the mum wrote to her more than 52,000 followers. “My insufficiency caused this statistical deficit because obviously my Munch should get ALL the love and squinty eyes are totally adorable.”

Bower, who also called her son “one of the most helpful and sweet hearted little boys,” wrote that she has finally learned to let go of the need to be liked online.

“I am thankful that I know that,” she continued. “That no matter what other people think of me or my kids or my marriage or my house or my life or my everything…that they are 100000000x better in real life than any tiny little picture can hold.”

At the time of McGreal’s screen capture, approximately 12 hours after posting, Bower had edited her post to include a post script message after receiving backlash from people online.

“I wanted to clarify that I revealed this feeling because I know one day he will see the numbers and have to learn that is value is not in online approval,” Bower wrote. “This is a hard lesson for anyone to learn and I’m thankful I have learned it. I hope you all can be understanding and not take things out of context or believe that this in any way affects how I see or treat my children. All comments and well wishes I read to the birthday boy!”

The post has since been deleted and Bower has turned off commenting on her most recent posts.

McGreal’s tweet has been overrun with comments from people criticising Bower for her comments, with many people encouraging her to take some time away from social media.

“Very narcissistic behaviour,” one person wrote.

“Her children only hold value in how good they make her look or are ‘succeeding.’ Blatant attempt to use a post about her ‘underperforming’ social media son to get attention from her followers. Berating him on his birthday under the guise of concern.”

“I don’t think she actually learned that your value is not in online approval,” another added. “And might want to admit that she has addiction issues and should close her account.”

After the backlash, Bower took to Instagram stories to double down on her comments about her feelings being about personal growth.

“Kids are smart,” Bower said through tears. “Kids know there’s likes on photos and it’s human nature to compare. For me, my personal growth journey is teaching my kids that it doesn’t matter.”

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