"A parents' group chat is a unique social experiment where parents will meet people they would never talk with otherwise ― for good reason, as actor Ashley Tisdale (who now goes by Ashley French) recently detailed in a personal essay. In a piece for The Cut titled "Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group," French said she thought her new moms chat would become her "village" until she realized that it appeared they were talking about her behind her back in a way that felt "too high school.""
"Braggers who love to share their child's accomplishments can cause the most friction in a parents' chat, Lebovitz Suria said. Braggers are people "whose intention is to get positive praise and affirmation for something their child did," she explained, and when that doesn't happen how they like, these braggers may lash out and cause frustrations within the group."
""Group chats are a microcosm for real-life social dynamics," said Sarah Lebovitz Suria, a licensed psychologist who works with families. "Different people have different sorts of social goals or logistical goals [for being in the chat], and so it's a neat forum to be able to think about who you want to be.""
Parent group chats function as both practical coordination tools and social arenas where varying personalities produce support or conflict. Some chats provide essential logistics for sports and school schedules and foster helpful, nurturing exchanges. Other chats reproduce high-school dynamics through exclusion, public bragging, passive-aggressive posts and behind-the-back conversations. Social goals differ: some members seek affirmation, others seek information or control. Licensed therapists describe group chats as microcosms of real-life social dynamics and recommend considering individual motives when deciding how to participate. Common archetypes include braggers who seek praise and lash out and historians who record group activities.
Read at HuffPost
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