If you're a mom on Facebook, you very likely saw this blog post going around last week. And while I agree with some of what the author had to say, it also made me feel a little defensive. Mostly because Pinterest is my happy place, and it threw me for a loop that it caused anyone to feel pressured and discouraged. You mean not everyone logs into Pinterest and gets lost for hours in seemingly endless inspiration?? I guess the difference between me and the author is that I craft because it's who I am... I was a maker long before I was a mama. Second only to my family, crafting is my raison d'etre. So while yes my child wants ME and I want her, I can't just be "mama." Being a maker is what nurtures me. And if I don't make time for that, then I'd feel like I lost part of my identity. So as much as the author doesn't want to be made to feel bad for struggling to do a fancy braid in her daughters' hair, I don't want to be made to feel bad for sewing my daughter a Christmas dress or looking forward to her birthday as an excuse to give my Silhouette a workout. I don't do any of this to make other moms feel inadequate, nor do I feel peer pressure to go overboard at pretty much every crafting opportunity - I do it because I simply can't help myself.
So anyway, back to Pinterest... fellow moms, I beg you, please don't turn my happy place into the latest thing that's wrong with modern motherhood. One of the things I've always loved most about the design/DIY/sewing community online is how insanely supportive and encouraging everyone is toward one another, and until that article, I thought Pinterest worked the same way. Yes, there are things about it I could do without. I avoid the Popular page like the plague because it's the Internet equivalent of Top 40 radio... it exists only to remind me how little I have in common with the masses. And I scan past people's fitness pins like salads on a restaurant menu - we all know that's not why I'm here... give me a pulled pork sandwich and let me be on my way. But, that's the beauty of Pinterest - it can be whatever you want it to be. If you like the recipes but the crafts make you feel like a lazy mama, just unfollow your friends' crafting boards. Why set yourself up to feel bad? That's just silly.
Trust me, I have plenty of imperfections that Emma will likely remind me of daily when she's a teenager, so for now - let me have my homemade ice cream and personalized quilts. Those are the things I'm good at. Do I think they make me a good mother? Of course not. But on those days when Emma has eaten nothing but Os and raisins, only managed 2 twenty minute naps, and is in her 3rd outfit of the day, I can lay her down to sleep for the night in a room filled with stuff that I made her and feel just a little better about myself.