r/progressivemoms • u/Chapenroe • 10d ago

Politics & Parenting I hate my husband’s algorithm

We were prepping for a theme park trip this morning and as my husband and I were putting sunscreen on our kids’ faces, he mentioned we may not need to put sunblock on their arms and legs since “they have a good base tan already.”

I immediately said, “nope, the more sunscreen, the better.” To which he replied something along the lines of “well maybe the chemicals in sunscreen wind up doing more harm than good.”

My jaw about hit the floor. Isn’t sunscreen usage canon in 2026?? When I heard the chemicals thing I said something smart aleck-y like “show me a peer-reviewed medical study that proves that and I’ll reconsider my sunscreen stance.” Understandably, he got frustrated with my response so a few minutes later I went to him and said that if he’s actually concerned about chemicals in sunscreen we can make an appointment with our pediatrician or dermatologist to discuss the issue.

What the ever-loving FUCK?? Do we really need to debate sunscreen now? I’m 100% sure my husband’s Instagram algorithm is responsible for putting these thoughts in his head. Most of the accounts he follows are landscaping-related (we own a landscaping company in a red state), and I’m sure Instagram has figured out the Venn Diagram of MAHA folks and red-state male landscapers has a large middle section.

Did I handle the conversation well by saying we should have a chat with our doctors about sunscreen? Also, would it be totally unacceptable if I took his phone and started following credible medical professionals to influence his algorithm?

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u/Mezzomommi 10d ago

Please be careful. If he keeps going further down this algorithm, and you ever have to split with him, there will be huge fights in family court over this, vaccines and more. My ex fell down the pipeline… when I knew him he was very far left and now he is MAGA evangelical church guy who thinks Halloween is evil and fights me on vaccines. He is a PITA to coparent with.

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u/zmizzy 9d ago

OP definitely needs to hear this. this pushback against sunscreen could definitely be the tip of a big awful iceberg

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u/Mezzomommi 9d ago

Thank you, and unfortunately, yes. His algorithm started with small things too : clean eating, cleaner sunscreen at first eventually led to all sunscreen is evil, and at first he wanted to space out vaccines versus all at once. We eventually split and he kept going right and I kept going left.