The Curse of Supermom

In a past post I wrote about how much I love Pinterest. Now, that hasn't changed one bit...but I'm beginning to realize that having it in my life is both a blessing and a curse.

Clearly, there are many reasons why it is awesome. 

1. You get tons of recipes without having to shell out the money for a recipe book (that will sit unused in the cupboard...not that I'm speaking from experience or anything). 
2. You are able to stumble across many amazing blogs that you never would have found before while searching the internet trying to earn 3 measly Swagbucks. Which to be honest, I will probably forget about and never redeem. 
3. CRAFTS! PROJECTS! and TIPS! Oh my! Really, besides all the food pins that make you feel like you could be a 5 star chef, there are all these pins that inspire you to be creative/crafty/clean...um..y. Cleany. Even though the best you've ever drawn is a stick figure on Hangman, suddenly you feel the need to have a board full of artwork that you are determined to replicate. Oh, that old sled that has been sitting in the garage? HANG IT FROM THE CEILING AND HANG POTS & PANS ON IT. <---not joking. I am thinking of doing that. Check it out here. 

I could probably think of a couple more reasons why Pinterest is great, but I'm beginning to ramble. So I'll move on to why Pinterest can be such a pain in the rear end.

1. There are so many awesome things, that you end up spending more time pinning than actually doing. "Pin now, read later." Sound familiar? Also, while going through my recipe board I realized that I pinned a whole heck of a lot of things to make with pumpkin while I was pregnant.  Pumpkin anything sounded DELICIOUS while I was pregnant. Now? Not so much. Then there is the conundrum of, do I delete pumpkin-related pins? Do I keep them? Real world issues here, people! And, lesson learned, not everything should be made in a crock-pot. 
2. You find a pin that sounds pretty neat, click on it, and then spend the next 20 minutes reading how to paint your own knock off tumblers only to realize that you just wasted 20 minutes of your day learning how to paint knock off tumblers that you didn't even want the original of in the first place. 
3. Which brings me to the whole crux of this post: Pinterest makes me feel inadequate. Please indulge me while I soapbox. 

I realized that I view all these amazing things that people are doing and while wishing that I could do all of them too, I start to doubt myself because this is the vision in my head of what I am supposed to be as a SAHM:

Supermom. 

The image of homemaker perfection, although I have no idea if Superwoman was ever a homemaker...it's my vision, OK?  

But I feel more like... 

My apologies to the internet stranger whose picture this is. But you showed up as a result of a "disheveled woman" search. You also didn't score me any Swagbucks while doing that search. How dare you.

Usually I feel as though my house is a disaster. I can never meal plan properly. I am constantly stressed about our budget and can never be quite frugal enough. I'm behind on putting away laundry/diapers. Shall I continue?

Don't worry, I know Pinterest isn't really to blame. When I've sat down and had my (18th) cup of coffee and showered and changed so that I don't look like a homeless lady who accidently wandered into a house, I remember that I am not perfect. I am definitely not Superwoman (but wouldn't that be cool?). When I read those awesome blogs and see other women are painting masterpieces, shingling their roof with one hand tied behind their back, having a made-from-scratch organic dinner from their own garden on the table every night, all the while her 36 kids are clean, well-mannered, and mastered a Romance language while in-utero; it is definitely easy to doubt your own ability and to view yourself as a failure. That is my problem. Here I am, having a Stepford Wives freakout while not realizing that I am doing just fine. I am not failing, and that is something that I might need to remind myself of more often. Or hourly daily. Otherwise, I'm going to make myself cray cray and miss out on the really important things going on in my life. 

Yeah, there are currently muddy dog foot prints in my kitchen. I'm waaaay behind on laundry due to a broken laundry machine. And my kid likes to try to play in the toilet. But that's my family and my life, and I kind of love it. Like, a lot.

And I know things won't magically change overnight, and it will take time to not stress about not getting things done. It is definitely a work in progress.