A friend showed me this cool online game called Pinterest. It is the pumpkin spice latte of the internet. From what I could tell in the beginning, you pin a bunch of projects and recipes, then you get points for the ones you complete without crying. Ok, so I have never seen any actual points, but I’m sure there are levels and I happened to be climbing each and every one of them.

I see a lot of posts about people failing at the crafts that they find on Pinterest. This is NOT me. I’m so crafty that I’m pretty sure the Beastie Boys named a song after me. Going to Disneyland? I’ll just make fancy Mickey ears for the whole family. Like Star Wars? Here is an ornament.

Only 4 ingredients in the fridge? Here is your gourmet meal. However, I have a confession to make… the pictures posted by Pinterest queens? They are all smoke and mirrors. Sure, the Mickey ears are cute, but you haven’t seen the 3rd degree glue gun burns on my index finger. That close up of the complicated recipe that I mastered is only that close up so you can’t see the two week old layer of crusted up whatever on my stove.

Take, for another example, this picture of my son’s room. I painted that mural.

But if I drop the camera slightly down…

I once made Good Housekeeping, but they never once saw my house. If they had, I would have more likely made Hoarders. If you take a step back and look at Pinterest objectively, you will see that it is setup to make us all look crazy. Craft, read inspirational quote about being an empowered woman, exercise, make something healthy (with quinoa), bake a cake, annnnnd…. repeat.

So, to all the moms out there, no one is really doing it better than you. Take it from a level 80 Pinterest parent who is sitting here in the middle of the day in mismatched pajamas and drinking from a stained coffee cup. Store bought Valentines are just fine. Your kid won’t end up in therapy, Well, at least not for that.

Does this confession mean that I am giving up my beloved Pinterest? Heck no! Those mason jars aren’t going to bedazzle themselves. I’m just saying that, before you get your self esteem tangled up in perfect pins, realize that behind every perfect mom has a pot with the bottom burned out of it and StairMaster that doubles as a coat rack.

*featured image by Pixabay

