If you've been following Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel on Instagram, you know that she and her husband, Jensen Karp, recently had a beautiful baby boy named Adler.
Last month, in a series of candid and emotional Instagram posts, Danielle opened up about the "delivery nightmare" she went through, as well as Adler's time in Intensive Care — thankfully mom and baby are since home safe and sound.
Over the past few weeks, Danielle has been sharing updates and photos of Adler — but has clearly refrained from showing his face on social media. Which means, pics of adorable baby toes...
...or strategically placed emojis. Here he is meeting Danielle's Girl Meets World costar, Sabrina Carpenter:
And here's robot Adler with the one and only Cory Matthews, aka Ben Savage:
Well, since Instagram is a place where people just LOVE leaving comments, Danielle has been fielding a lot of questions about why she and Jensen made the choice not to show Adler's face on social media. So she shared a post explaining their thinking:
"We are two people who made a conscious choice to be in the public eye and share what would normally be private moments with the public," she wrote. "Adler isn't capable of making that choice for himself and until he is, we've decided to shield him from places where strangers can comment on him."
"The truth is, choosing not to post pictures of him kinda sucks. I wanna show you my baby every day."
But she went on to explain the two main reasons they decided against it: "1. His safety. There are weirdos out there. Enough said."
"2. Putting pictures and facts about him onto the internet that he doesn't have any say in. I'd like for him to be able to curate his own footprint on the internet in the future without being mortified we posted about his fear of swimming or his first crush."
That said, Danielle made it extremely clear that this is just their personal choice. "l look at people like Chrissy Teigen and I *love* how she posts about her kids and I respect her decision. It makes me think I can/should do the same thing."
"But then I see Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard and I respect and understand their decision too!"
Ultimately, Danielle and Jensen have decided to keep sharing special pictures of Adler while using emojis to cover his face. "I'm sorry if that offends you but we're doing the best we can and it's hard. Being a parent and making decisions for your kid is tough. Fyi, dogs are easier."
Read Danielle's full caption here:
Woof. Lotta people with questions about why I chose not to share my baby's face on my last post. Currently, @jensenkarp and I have chosen to keep Adler's face off our social media pages. We are two people who made a conscious choice to be in the public eye and share what would normally be private moments with the public. Adler isn't capable of making that choice for himself and until he is, we've decided to shield him from places where strangers can comment on him. It wasn't an easy decision for us. We both love social media and sharing special moments in our lives. I also don't have any issue posting a picture of me in a men's bathrobe with a rice eye patch that's healing a stye on my eye but that's MY choice. The truth is, choosing not to post pictures of him kinda sucks. I wanna show you my baby every day. He's cuter than this 👼 but I worry about a couple things. 1. His safety. There are weirdos out there. Enough said. 2. Putting pictures and facts about him onto the internet that he doesn't have any say in. I'd like for him to be able to curate his own footprint on the internet in the future without being mortified we posted about his his [sic] fear of swimming or his first crush. With that said, I look at people like Chrissy Teigen and I *love* how she posts about her kids and I respect her decision. It makes me think I can/should do the same thing. But then I see Kristen Bell and Dax Shepherd [sic] and I respect and understand their decision too! Also, not posting any pictures of his face does put a bit of a paparazzi bounty on him because someone will want the first image. (Maybe we allow someone to have pictures of him once and then keep him private from then on? Idk.) In the end, @jensenkarp and I had to make a decision about what we felt comfortable posting and for now (at least) we have chosen to not post his face. But I'm also not going to not post a beautiful picture of one of my best friends holding my baby for the first time because seeing an emoji over his face ticks you off. I'm sorry if that offends you but we're doing the best we can and it's hard. Being a parent and making decisions for your kid is tough. Fyi, dogs are easier. 🐶❤️