Pumpkin Patch and the Reality of Instagram
These are just a few of the adorable images I have of my Little Bug with her friends at the Pumpkin Patch this past weekend.
Aren't these babies the sweetest?
It was so nice to spend a weekend doing something fun after being sick the past few weeks. It was nice to get out and enjoy this fall season with my little gal. Unfortunately it was pretty dang hot and didn't feel too "fallish" and the patch was a little too much for me, but it was still fun to get out and be with my friends and our sweet kiddos.
Pumpkin patches are all over Instagram these days along with beautiful fall trees, fall meals and the perfect fall ensemble with Starbucks in hand and a baby in the other. Instagram has quickly become my favorite social network and is where I usually spend my free time.
You know, being a bum on the sofa scrolling through and stalking other people's lives for inspiration, ideas, etc...
Let's get real for a second though, Instagram as wonderful as it is, is also kind of blah for some of us. I have days where I stalk my favorite grammers and sometimes envy their photos. They live on beautiful farms in cozy little houses that magically look like they belong in the hottest interior design magazine; they cook dinners that I quite frankly don't have the energy to cook right now; and they do the coolest crafts and skills with their kids. And not to mention their photos are always stunning.
It's easy for us mothers to get lost in the, "she's doing it better than me" mode all because of one silly Instagram picture. It's easy for us to see these beautiful Instagrams and think that these people's lives are always so picture perfect, when in fact, we know that no one's life is really that perfect. Even I myself am I always trying to use new apps and filters just to get my pictures prettier and more "consistent" in terms of palettes. But the truth of the matter is that I live in a rent house with brown walls and no matter how bright I want my photos to be, it just won't happen. I don't have white walls everywhere with white bedding and white sofas. I wish I did, but I don't and that's the reality of it all.
The thing to remember for all of us mothers is that we all have different stories, different situations and different lifestyles. I wish I could whip up fabulous meals and I wish my house was Instagram fabulous but neither of those will happen anytime soon (okay, so I can cook pretty good but nothing amazing). We have to remember that while yes we may have totally slacked at the over the top mom thing that day (you know, we didn't do crafts and work on fine motor skills) that we still rocked motherhood. Even if it consisted of a little too much television but an abundance of cuddles, those cuddles beat any craft any day.
So the reality is that I don't live some fabulous Instagram perfect life. My pictures aren't always stunning and some days I rock motherhood and wife status, and other days I'm just a lazy bum who stayed in her pajamas until 3 pm and ate a package of Oreos.
That's real life. And I'm just a plain ole' real mom doing the best I can.
So before you get lost in that, "she's doing it better and prettier than me" mode, remember that she's really not. She just had a good filter, excellent lightening and a kid who wanted to cooperate for that photo.
Your Instagram feed may not always be as stunningly beautiful as someone else's, but your life is...
Any mamas feel me on the Instagram topic?