When I scroll through my Facebook news feed, generally, it's filled with photo's of happy families, happy babies, achievements, milestones, beautiful houses and smiley faces - all of the happy moments my Facebook friends experience.
It's great to see these wonderful moments and share in the memory's created, but at the same time it creates an unattainable image of perfect lives, perfect parenting and perfect children. I know it's in no way deliberate, we all want to share with our friends the happy moments in our lives - I know I do - after all who wants to see our messy houses and our screaming children?
The problem is though, these images tend to paint a picture of perfect domestic bliss when in reality its often quite different. Following my "rant" post awhile ago, I did some thinking about the things I wrote and I why I was feeling that way. Why do I put so much pressure on myself to have it "all together"? It's not realistic, I have a 6 month old baby for goodness sake - I think I deserve a break - having a young baby is hard work.
But, when I see these images I begin to compare myself and my life to them and it makes me second guess myself and my capability as a parent - how do they manage to cope with young babies AND have a clean house? I can't.
That's where social media becomes a dangerous thing. It's unrealistic. It's too perfect.
This is where common sense needs to prevail but it doesn't always. This is where I need to remind myself that just because, on the surface, everything looks perfect it's not always. We only show a small snippet of our lives - on social media - and it's not always so easy or so perfect.
We don't show the crap days or the pile of stuff shoved in the cupboard that we can't bring ourselves to organise. But we do post the one smiley picture in a day full of grizzling and temper tantrums.
It's times like these where I need to take a step back and remember that life is not always as rosy as it appears. We all have our crap days and no one is an exception to the rule. I need to not compare myself to others and realise that it's ok to not be "onto it" or to have all my "shit" together.
So, next time you're scrolling through your newsfeed and all you seem to see, from that one particular friend, is nothing but smiles and sweetness just remember that what we see is barely a scratch in the surface of life and the struggles that most of us suffer through on a daily basis!
Because - let's be honest - 9 times out of 10 my hairs a mess, my house is a mess, my child's spent the day in a permanent state of grizzling BUT you can, practically, guarantee that the Mum whose posted that beautiful, smiley pic of their gorgeous baby is going through exactly the same damn thing.
But, when I see these images I begin to compare myself and my life to them and it makes me second guess myself and my capability as a parent - how do they manage to cope with young babies AND have a clean house? I can't.
That's where social media becomes a dangerous thing. It's unrealistic. It's too perfect.
This is where common sense needs to prevail but it doesn't always. This is where I need to remind myself that just because, on the surface, everything looks perfect it's not always. We only show a small snippet of our lives - on social media - and it's not always so easy or so perfect.
We don't show the crap days or the pile of stuff shoved in the cupboard that we can't bring ourselves to organise. But we do post the one smiley picture in a day full of grizzling and temper tantrums.
It's times like these where I need to take a step back and remember that life is not always as rosy as it appears. We all have our crap days and no one is an exception to the rule. I need to not compare myself to others and realise that it's ok to not be "onto it" or to have all my "shit" together.
So, next time you're scrolling through your newsfeed and all you seem to see, from that one particular friend, is nothing but smiles and sweetness just remember that what we see is barely a scratch in the surface of life and the struggles that most of us suffer through on a daily basis!
Because - let's be honest - 9 times out of 10 my hairs a mess, my house is a mess, my child's spent the day in a permanent state of grizzling BUT you can, practically, guarantee that the Mum whose posted that beautiful, smiley pic of their gorgeous baby is going through exactly the same damn thing.
Couldn't have said it better myself Tegan! thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete