A couple of years ago, I had to stop reading design blogs because they were making me feel bad about myself. Iโd look at the pretty photos of their pretty families and their pretty meals and their pretty rooms and, well, itโs hard not to feel like a bit of a loser when the only things youโve got on your walls is your kidโs Sharpie art when you were trying to take a shower that one day. Of course, the design-y folks would probably pop a frame around it on the wall and get 40,000 hits on their โDIY Kids Wall Artโ tutorial.
With the rise in popularity of Pinterest, I know Iโm not the only one whoโs experiencing a bit of inadequacy. OK, maybe a lot.
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And itโs not just the gorgeous crafts and recipes, or the fabulously stylish outfits. I mean, I get that people have hobbies and enjoy those sorts of things. And as much as Iโm good at, say, โwriting a blog postโ or โcooking boxed macaroni and cheese,โ there are people who are good at other things, like decorating their kidsโ room like a Martha Stewart magazine layout.
But, seriously, who has the time to make a craft out of an old tape dispenser? If I had that time, Iโd be sleeping or catching up on Downton Abbey.
This culture of perfection isnโt a new thing, with the Vogue, Glamour and Real Simple magazines of the world enthralling us with their perfectly coiffed hair, makeup and kitchen pantries. God, those sexy kitchen pantries.
Because if theyโre parents like us and they can do all that, then why canโt we?
But they were always a bit unattainable. We knew there were stylists and assistants and interns running around to produce the final outcome and, so in a way, we could pat ourselves on the backsโus โregular old folksโโand know that if we had the same sort of entourage we could do the same.
However, now with the blogs and Pinterest pins from parents like us, itโs hard not to see our own inability and deficits staring back at us in those perfect photos. Because if theyโre parents like us and they can do all that, then why canโt we? Are we somehow taking away from our own kidsโ experience because we pack them peanut butter and jelly with the crusts on and not the bento box with a sandwich shaped like a whale?
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Iโm the first to admit that itโs easy to get enticed by the beauty of it all, and worse, to think that our children are somehow missing out on life because weโre not turning their artwork into gorgeous photo collages or throwing them parties with handstitched banners.
But then I remind myself that weโre only seeing a snippet of their lives, a photoshopped, art-directed moment in time that took the help of many people, and lots of time and energy. And my children are no worse off that the child wearing the duct tape vest. In fact in some ways, they might be better. Because instead of me spending my time trying to keep up, Iโm giving it to them. Even if itโs just me and them laughing at bad knock-knock jokes over breakfast for dinner.
