The Friday Edit
Influencer Parents, Buying a Home, and Hanging Out With Nuns. Your weekly dose of culture, Catholic happenings, and occasional outrage.
The Domestic Church Was Never Meant to Be Social Media Content
Ruby Franke, a Mormon “momfluencer” behind the YouTube channel 8 Passengers, was sentenced to prison in 2024 after she and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated child abuse.
For years, Ruby built a platform on strict parenting, portraying herself as a values-driven, God-fearing mother, while behind the scenes, her children were being starved, isolated, and physically restrained. She made money off their meltdowns, punishments, and private lives, normalizing emotional neglect as “discipline.” This wasn’t just bad parenting; it was abuse, wrapped in Christian language and exploited for clicks. The scandal is a sobering reminder that parental authority is meant to protect, not perform, and that turning your children into content can easily become a gateway to real harm.
On July 1, 2025, a new law took effect in Virginia requiring parents or guardians who feature their children (under age 16) in monetized video content to compensate them. If a child’s name, image, or likeness appears in the content, the child is now legally entitled to a portion of the earnings.
I have long thought kids don’t belong on social media. I thought all Catholic parents would be on board with this concept, but alas, there are some who see it differently.
Some Catholic content creators post about their kids almost daily. These creators trade bedtime stories for clickbait, sharing their children with a crowd they’ll never meet in person. We, the followers, likely know their children’s names, where they live, what they ate for breakfast, whether or not they have the flu this week, what homeschool curriculum they’re using, and what their favorite TV shows are.
I, and the rest of the world, should not know that much about a kid whose parents I have never met in person.
Beyond the whole kid thing, there’s a real lack of privacy on social media—particularly with content creators, but even with us regular folk. For many, social media is how we keep in touch with friends and family whom we don’t see often. I can’t tell you how many times a friend or family member has told me, “Oh, I saw on Instagram that you did X!”
This is my own fault.
I won’t lie, internally I cringe a little each time I hear someone say, “I saw on social media that XYZ happened in your life.” I find myself lamenting that I just don’t take the time to catch up with those who matter most to me. That being said, I have set some important boundaries for myself in terms of what I do choose to share online.
I’ll share what topics are completely off-limits on social media for me. Feel free to use these as a jumping-off point if you’re trying to set your own boundaries:
Health and medical history for me, my spouse, or any of our family/friends
Location of where we live and any photos of house exterior
Photos of children (unless parent shares first/explicitly gives me permission)
This list is not comprehensive, but it’s a good start—and quite honestly, each bullet point covers quite a bit of potential “content,” if you think about it. Pick your favorite influencer, and I guarantee you’ve probably seen ample content relating to each of those three boundaries I listed.
Homeownership Is Glamorous (If You Like Chaos)
I am just waiting for the HOA to send me a strongly worded letter. Using my husband’s ratchet straps, I fashioned a makeshift clothesline along our back deck to dry the load of laundry I did earlier in the day. Our dryer decided it would take approximately four cycles to half-dry one load of laundry (don’t worry, the vent cleaners are coming next week… and God, I hope it’s just a blocked vent).
Later that day, the toilet paper roll holders in two of the four bathrooms fell clean out of the wall in a pathetic flop of death (this is what happens when your house is built in the ’80s and nothing was updated since then). The following day, I decided it was time to tackle the sticky contact paper kitchen drawer nightmare I’ve been dreading.
Meanwhile, while all this is going on, I’ve seen way too many insects indoors, too many unopened, disorganized boxes, and far too many 90+ degree days. The list of troubles goes on, but I will spare you the details.
I shouldn’t really complain, because these are the growing pains of homeownership! In case you missed it (which you did, because I never actually announced it), my husband and I bought a home. It’s a lovely 4 bed, 4 bath house in MAGA-loving, horse-country. We’re in a sweet spot — right between D.C. and the stunning Blue Ridge. We are five minutes from a lovely downtown area, walking distance to multiple grocery stores, and in a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. The perfect place for us, for now.
I’m tackling a variety of home improvement projects and will share updates here and there when I can (keep scrolling and you’ll read about a project I accomplished this week). Making this house a home is really time-consuming, but also really fun. All in all, it’s a great blessing.
An Evening with Nuns
Because of the move, our local Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist invited my husband and I to their convent for Vespers, Mass, and dinner before we packed up and said goodbye. We’ve built friendships with a few of them over the years and in their kindness and generosity, they offered to feed us — spiritually and physically.
This particular convent has about 8–10 sisters, ranging in age from ~35ish to ~90ish. These women have consecrated their lives to Jesus and live together in community while serving in different ministerial roles (for example, one is a Montessori teacher, another is a college professor, one does youth ministry, etc.).
As we rolled in at 5:59 P.M. for Vespers (which starts promptly at 6 P.M.), I was reminded by how “clunky” us lay people are. We’re loud, we’re in a rush, we’re late. We hastily storm into the convent while the sisters are quietly praying in their pews, and I find my jingling keys and obnoxiously large purse suddenly so intrusive and cumbersome. The sisters warmly greet us, hand us each a Liturgy of the Hours book, and Vespers begins with the meek and low voice of an older sister intoning a chant. Meanwhile, I’m still huffing and catching my breath.
Immediately I realize I’m not in the outside world anymore. I’m at the doorstep of Heaven, communing with God through peaceful, repetitive prayer. I can feel my shoulders droop, my muscles relax, and my eyes close. “We need to come to the convent more,” I thought to myself.
I never formally discerned religious life, though for a brief time, I toyed around with the thought of consecrated virgin, but realized that idea was more caused by me just not dating rather than an actual calling from God. When I started to date after college (yeah, I didn’t go on a proper date until I was 23, imagine that), I realized marriage was a real possibility for me.
Anyway, while in college, I did spend quite some time with a few religious orders while on short mission trips to Honduras and North Carolina. I’ve always admired their way of life — peaceful, quiet, slow, intentional. Something lay people often lack.
After our convent visit, I had a renewed zeal to add more structure and silence to my life, essentially making it “convent-lite.” A small way to do this is obviously through intentional, daily prayer time — whether 5 or 10 minutes, or a full holy hour if you’re able.
I find that the more chaotic life is, the more you need this time of prayer. It’s hard to do and it often falls by the wayside, but the sisters reminded me just how important it is and for that, I’m thankful.
Things I’m hating, because we’re called to judge with right judgment 💅
Peel and stick wallpaper. I spent 6 hours applying it to this little kitchen nook. SIX HOURS. I have never used peel and stick wallpaper. I was influenced by home DIYers and thought it looked easy enough. It is not easy. In fact, it is very hard. Lining up the design elements, trying (and failing) to get rid of air bubbles, and cutting so many crooked lines took its toll on me. My body thoroughly rejected the process by the time evening rolled around, as I suffered for hours with a headache and a backache.
Things I’m loving, because taste is a virtue 💅
Peel and stick wall paper. I have to admit, despite the pain-in-the-butt process, the wallpaper really elevates the whole builder-grade kitchen. If you have the patience and time, wallpaper is totally making a comeback, style-wise. I think wallpapering small spaces, like in the photo above, are manageable… granted, I was standing/sitting in my kitchen sink for about 6 hours. So… depends on how you define “manageable”.
Anyway, I will be using this little nook as a coffee/tea corner. Next up is to sand and paint a mug rack that I already have and drill it into the nook. Once that’s in, I’ll fill out the space with other cozy drink accoutrements.
Here’s a link to the wallpaper I used, in case you want to copy me ;) I used ~90% of the largest roll size for a total of 6 kitchen drawers and the nook, just to give you an idea of how much you may need. I’d also recommend getting wall paper application tools and some kind of straight-edge.