The Pinterest Mom

For the life of me, I couldn't put my finger on the mommy issue that has been bugging me.  But last night at small group, another mom nailed it.  Being a mommy today is hard because there is a peer pressure to be "The Pinterest mom."  Say what?  Yeah, if you're not a mommy, then the concept of The Pinterest Mom is probably totally foreign.  On the other hand, if you are a mommy, you likely know exactly what I'm talking about.  The crazy thing is that The Pinterest Mom cannot be defined.  She's a legend.  She's the modern renaissance mom.

I assure you, as much as I would love to claim the rights to this title (because then that would make me a 5 star mom), I am certainly not The Pinterest Mom.  Don't get me wrong, I do have a Pinterest page.  I have a blog.  I am a homeschool mom.  I have some of the components of this idealic Mother figure, but I certainly wouldn't pass the Super Mom test. 

These are the reasons why I'm not The Pinterest Mom:

1) For starters, I don't craft or build or sew.  I like to buy things ready-to-wear and ready-to-display, preferably new, and from an actual store.  When I see cute crafts on Pinterest, I go to places like Hobby Lobby in search of the already made version.  Sometimes, my way of non-crafting is actually cheaper and this gives me satisfaction that I'm not a total loser.

2) I also don't shop at the Farmer's Market or cook Vegan meals for my family.  We eat fruits and vegetables with meals, but generally I just buy what is fresh from Wal-Mart (I know, I'm soooo middle America!).  Plus, I like beef and refuse to give it up.  I mean, would you give up a yummy post roast or ball game hot dog in exchange for a meal of beans, tofu, or salad?  Enough said!

3) Next, I don't do Yoga or Pilates.  My version of exercise is either doing my kids' laundry which requires a hundred trips up and down my stairs, or it involves pushing a stroller of 75 pounds of children on a 3 mile round trip to the park.  I may not be a size 0, but since I can fit into my pre-baby#1 jeans I figure what I'm doing is sufficient for now.
 
4) Since you're reading my blog, you already know that photography is not my gift.  I don't have time to stage my house and fix the lighting in order to take amazing photos of my life.  So, when I do share pictures, they're generally from my phone or from Grandma's collection.  Photos have never been a big deal to me.  I didn't even hire a professional photographer for my wedding (gasp!).  The walls of my home are also not plastered with pictures of myself or the family.  And while I do have some great photos for memory's sake, I'm just not into lots of pictures.  Sorry to disappoint.

5) My 5 year old doesn't go to preschool and he doesn't read.  This was intentional on my part.  Maybe I'm crazy, but my anti-schooling of this little guy seems to have worked.  He's super excited about starting school and learning.  And now I know that he's going to learn correctly and in the correct order when we start "real school" via homeschooling.

6) My ideas on childbirth and pregnancy are so not "in" right now.  I'm not gaga over midwives.  I believe that God gifted women with pain medicine and that it is 100% acceptable to use it.  I believe that fetal monitoring saves the lives of babies.   I believe that C-Sections are often the difference between a healthy vs. a brain injured baby.  And I think that plenty babies have grown up to be healthy happy children even though they weren't breast fed.  Pregnancy and childbirth are such individual experiences that I think moms should stop the indoctrination of falsities and should let people have their own safe, comfortable experiences.  Mind you, I'm a nurse and a birth injury attorney, so I have a different perspective on this than the average mom.

I could go on and on with reasons why I'm not The Pinterest Mom.  Yeah, I know, I sound crazy.  At the age of 16, I wrote a 15 page paper of My Philosphy of Life for school.  Today, that paper would be a couple hundred pages long (I know I sound a little fruity), because  I'm very intentional in what I do and usually have a well thought-out reason for what I do even if my ideas are not en vogue.  By society's standards, my parenting and housewife ways are often unconventional or old fashioned.  I would never be given a Mom of the Year award.  For sure, other moms raise their eyebrows at me and think I'm lazy or uninformed.

But the joy of being a mom is that it's not about me.  For me,  motherhood is about my kids and doing what is best for them.  I don't have to fit society's version of the perfect mother--nor do I want to, because I'm not raising kids to be politically correct socialbots (go with me on this word). 

That said, I may never even get close to being The Pinterest Mom or having her homespun house.  Still I'm pretty sure my kids could rival hers any day of the week!