Perfect is a lovely word.

Perfect is also an overused word, because perfection is rare. How often is anything actually perfect?

Now let’s move onto another P word: Pinterest.  I’m a little obsessed with Pinterest.  I love looking at how to lists, and pictures of closets and organizing tips.  I love the pictures, which frankly, are perfect.  But there’s also the reality: these photos are choreographed and staged. Who knows how many cakes were made before the picture was finally taken?  Who knows if it’s actually a cake? What we see looks perfect, but we really don’t know, do we?

The final P word: Parent.

When did we decide that parents were supposed to be pinterest perfect?

Here’s the deal: as a parent you are going to make mistakes. You are going to make a lot of mistakes.  And even if you don’t think you made any mistakes, your child might think differently. Remember, my Daughter told me I was too nurturing because I make her breakfast.  See, I thought making her breakfast was a good thing.  Who knew it would be my parenting flaw…

So…

Stop thinking you need to be perfect.  Stop thinking you will go eighteen years without making a mistake.  Stop thinking that everyone is doing it better than you.  As stated, appearances are deceiving.

Here’s my basic advice:

  1. Keep them healthy- exercise, good food options, sleep
  2. teach them the benefits of hard work
  3. stress that they should do their best, not anyone else’s best
  4. embrace whatever they are passionate about and help them reach their dreams
  5. remind them that they are special to you
  6. Remind yourself that you are doing the best job you can at being a parent
  7. Own your mistakes when you make them and rectify them
  8. don’t worry about what everyone else is doing: who’s to say that what they’re doing is right
  9. delete pinterest

Parenting is not a social media photo op.  It’s a really hard job that has absolutely no glamour- it’s like fighting a war in the trenches. If you think things are going to be perfect you will be setting yourself up for a lifetime of failure. Be confident that YOU are doing the best job for YOUR child.  And it doesn’t have to be perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

36 thoughts on “Parenting 104: The Perfection Myth”

  1. I was a perfectionist until I outgrew the concept– as an adult, I might add. Now I try to do my best, and remember that a good enough something is better than a perfect nothing. My words to live by, for now.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Omg….so glad my daughter was older before there was Pinterest! I would have been right there. But we do beat ourselves up a bit, thinking everyone is doing it better than us….too much pressure

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yup. The other day I was talking to my neighbor and both of us thought that the other was the ‘perfect’ parent because we never hear any yelling. Turns out the townhouse walls are just good and thick! 😂😂

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I worked a content-writing job where I searched for themed pictures (birthdays, decorating, parties, etc.) and wrote enough keywords to drag people over there.

    The funny this was that I didn’t even know parents had themed one-year-old birthday parties! -Nor that those poor one-year-olds were put in front of so many themed, perfectly decorated high chairs, cakes, backdrops, and well-groomed patents and told to smile. We just gave ours their cake and presents and lots of love.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Absolutely! And we must remember to that what may work for one child doesn’t work for another. Every child is different, there is NO one plan on how to raise them fits all type of plan!

        Liked by 2 people

  7. Delete my Pinterest!!! Nooooo. I use it for recipes …..but I don’t compare my results to the photos. If it’s a success (the family likes it) it goes into my Family Favourites. Sorry. I’m keeping it. But I agree on the rest….we aren’t perfect. We shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to others. It’s all social media really.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I love Pinterest too (though in an odd Pinterest note, I recently started an arms board -I’m tired of the flaps- and three of my pins have been removed because whoever I pinned them from had copyright issues)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Yep. So true. I’ve had to apologize many times to my sons for things I’ve said or errors I’ve made. As I’ve heard many times, parenting doesn’t come with a manual. It’s basically on-the-job training. lol We also learn a bit by what our moms and dads did in raising us (or grandparents or other relatives in some cases). Those are what we’ve got to go on. We do the best we can. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. I love Pinterest but I am very happy that it wasn’t around when I was a young mother. It took the place of Martha Stewart that would have had us believe that we could do everything she did with a crew of servants. I am a bit of a perfectionist myself but usually it didn’t have as much impact on my parenting. I have to go on Pinterest with a time limit or a specific subject because it is a super time suck.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you. I did parenting topics the whole week that I posted this. Look them over and if you like where I’m coming from I will do a guest blog…just tell me wha5 area you want me to focus on

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s