Are you a Pinterest worthy parent? Does Pinterest give you Pinsecurity?
Do you ever go on pinterest and wonder why you can’t be more like this or that? Wonder why you can’t oh! so effortlessly create, cook, organize, dress, craft or re-invent something? Pinterest has this way of making it seem like there is this next level. A level of doing all those daily grind parenting things like cooking, clothing, organizing, parties, crafts in advanced mode… you know, the stuff that makes you super mom, the most awesome parent on the block…pinterest worthy! I’ll tell you up front, I’m not super mom, a perfect parent and not “pinterest worthy”, I am okay with that and I’ll tell you why:
It’s not a competition. None of this parenting stuff or life for that matter, should be a competition because, damn it, parenting is far too hard and life is far too fleeting for us to be keeping points or upping the ante.
Sure there are so many thousands, millions even of posts on pinterest with some of the coolest stuff, made by really smart, creative, interesting people, but then I remind myself, those pictures are just moments, snap shots, they may be pictures but they are not necessarily the whole picture.
People have different skill sets, and can’t that be something to celebrate? I actually find it quite cool that we can use a tool to see all these different skills and ideas in one place. Some people happen to be really crafty, others can cook, some can sew, some can set up a children’s party effortlessly or organize a closet. I cannot do closest organization; I’m more of a pile person. I cannot do gardens, I let the weeds live too… I cannot do interior decorating but I try anyways…pinterest isn’t making this so, it’s just fact and so I’m cool with that.
I read a disclaimer on someone’s blog post directed at pinterest users that was excusing the fact that this awesome meal they had made wasn’t the most nutritionally sound. Isn’t it kind of sad that we have justify our creative process or fear the nasty remarks? What ever happened to just being nice…lets be nice!
If people are posting on pinterest only because they need to boost their esteem and show off their skills, well then hugs to them and thank you for sharing, maybe it will inspire me or make me want to learn something new. Trying something and learning will never go out of style in my book.
Just because what I make is simpler doesn’t make it less fun…like this project I saw on pinterest…totally awesome. Except, my kids did not want to wait to paint or tape the roads, they wanted to play right away…so we did. Pinterest version (celebrateeverydaywithme’s version to be accurate), totally cool. Our version…yeah, totally cool too (at least the kids think so and they are the ones playing!) If you don’t think so, please see above about the being nice part 🙂
Source: celebrateeverydaywithme.com via Nikki on Pinterest
I drool over some of the crafts on pinterest but our art projects here sometimes end up looking like goop and paint blobs reminiscent of poo (my son called it that himself and we giggled over it, because we are silly like that…) but I totally appreciate the amazing crafty mama’s out there making robots out of tin cans, egg cartons and glitter…oh wait, is that some glitter on my floor, right, we tried making some robots…didn’t work so well but we did have a lot of fun.
Source: thechocolatemuffintree.com via Brinn on Pinterest
Fun, learning, happiness, acceptance…I’m “pinning” those and trying to love life. How about you, what are you “pinning”? What are your skills? Are you pin worthy – I bet so!
Peace & Be Well,
Ariadne
Ariadne Brill
Fabulous post and so true! I love how you say they are just snap shots and not the whole picture. I try to write in a blog post every now and then the non-perfect happenings of my day/week etc. Because we are all guilty of blogging and pinning and facebooking our best moments and leaving out the reality that sometimes comes along for the ride!
Great Post. Yes we made those robots, but not everything turns out with us either. My daughter loved the robots, but loved just sticking the magnets to other metal things too. I probably was more fascinated by them than her. I’m always glad to see posts like this to give everyone a reality check (including me!) Thanks…..I may just pin this to my “creative reads board” So there is a place for every post!
Melissa, I love your stuff 🙂 Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comment.
Yes, it is so much about what we choose to focus on, isn’t it? thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!!
Fabulous post! Very well said, and I think it’s something that every parent (bloggers and non) needs to read. If you don’t mind I’m going to link to this in a post I’m writing today.
Thank you for your comment and for stopping by!
What you say is so true! It’s easy to make it look like all things work perfectly just by presenting select photos. You’ve inspired me to write about some of our ‘failures/challenges’ such as one of my recent experiences of sensory play with gelatine. Do you know how hard that stuff is to clean up once it’s dried on surfaces such as concrete and window panes! Thanks for sharing.
Its interesting that you ask what we’re pinning because I kind of do use some guidelines when it comes to child related projects. Lots of projects look so fun, but seem less child directed and therefore not as interesting to me. You are so right when you say that they are the ones playing after all. Your children are clearly so involved with your co-constructed version.
I agree, I love to see the amazing things people can create but do not hold myself up for comparison. I can’t knit or sew but love to see the talent in others.
Great post!
Marisa, I love a child centered, child led project, so much magic in the simplest of things!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Susan I can only imagine the sticky mess! We had shaving cream paint play last summer and it was great fun until clean up time…that took forever and ever!! thank you for sharing, I’ll be visiting your site 🙂
Hi, I thought your post was a must read so I featured it on a post I wrote last night. Feel free to grab an “I was featured” button from my button page if you’d like one.
Thank you for mentioning my post! Enjoyed reading your site, I will be sure to visit again!! Thanks for stopping by!
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