Pinterest: A Love/Hate Relationship

For the first time in a couple months, I decided to use some of my free time to browse around Pinterest for a little bit. Bad idea. Twenty-two pins later, I had spent over two hours of my day reading about recipes, miracle workouts, and DIY craft how-to's. It's not even funny how easily I could waste my entire day away on Pinterest. It's quite addicting. Don't get me wrong, I think Pinterest is great and can be a positive tool for an aspiring homemaker like myself, however; I wonder if it has negative effects on women's perceptions of what being a good mother entails.

I recently read a blog post from a mom who expressed her frustration of feeling like a failure mother after looking at Pinterest. She expressed that it made her feel inadequate and discouraged. She had a realization that her children didn't want a mother who was an expert at crafting, cooking, and sewing. They wanted a mother that was active and involved in their lives. My favorite quote from her post:

"Can we remind each other that it is our uniqueness and love that our children long for? It is our voices. Our smiles. Our jiggly tummies. Of course we want to learn, improve, exercise, cook better, make our homes lovelier, and provide beautiful experiences for our children, but at the end of the day, our children don’t want a discouraged, stressed-out mom who is wishing she were someone else."

I love this idea. Children don't care if their meals are color coordinated or if their towels each have individual hand-embroidered monograms.They care about having a mother that plays with them, is attentive to their needs, and makes them feel special. It's sad but necessary to realize that even good types of media can have negative effects on us if we don't regulate our media usage and keep things in perspective. I need to remember that it's not necessary for me to be a professional home decorator or a gourmet chef in order to be a successful mother. Even I have been guilty of letting Pinterest sometimes convince me otherwise.