Raise your hand if at some point during this Christmas season you felt a twinge of inadequacy while viewing your friend’s perfectly styled, square piece of holiday perfection on Instagram. Clearly she’d carefully swept the stray sprinkles from the perfect cookies she and her children made away to make sure the photo was as pristine as could be (Admit it, you’ve done it too. So have I). That ugly monster “Mommy Guilt” started to rear her ugly head and you felt a little less than adequate in the Christmas-cookie-baking-experience department.
Or perhaps after fourteen sugar filled, overstimulated hours on Christmas day all you wanted to do was curl up in a ball, pile everyone in the bed and go to sleep? But the photos on Instagram said that everyone else’s children were still perfectly dressed (in matching, pressed, perfectly white outfits no less) and quietly playing with their toys beneath the Christmas tree?
Mine was likely still driving a toy tractor as fast as he could through my parents’ front yard knocking down “brick walls” made of cardboard Amazon boxes. And I’m pretty sure he was still in his jammies with a Batman hoodie on top.
I digress. Since when did Pinterest define perfection? Don’t get me wrong, Pinterest is great – for a short while and for the purpose of image / idea gathering. But how often do we allow “looking for inspiration” or “following our friends” to quickly turn into a game of comparison that inevitably leads to the world’s worst Mommy Guilt?
Let me ask you a question. Did you sit on the floor and play with your kids on Christmas day? Did you hug them and tell them how much they mean to you and talk to them about what truly matters? Good job, Mom. Now, chin up. Do what matters and forget the rest. Perfection is boring and overrated. Make the big things happen (the important things) and the rest will either fall into place or fall away.
xo,
Emily
PS: If I follow you on Pinterest and you made perfect cookies on Christmas Day then high fives, Mama! This little example is totally made up. :)
