According to one of my Pinterest boards, I clearly have a vision of motherhood that includes home-made, healthy foods and lots of hands-on activities for learning. But if these first two years of motherhood taught me anything, it’s that being a “Pinterest Mom” just isn’t 100% in the cards for me.
When I was preparing to be a mom, I knew I wanted to do certain things. I was positive I’d be able to be an amazing “Pinterest mom”. It was important that he did not eat like me (I have horrible eating habits). Stokely eats to much better than I could dream of! I didn’t want my kid glued to a screen or the tv. I wanted to make sure that they would have all sorts of engaging, fun, learning activities and lots and lots of books.
My Pinterest board is filled with all these things. Healthy meals, wholesome learning games, and how to be a “fun” mom. But the reality is that mom-life isn’t as glamorous as Pinterest makes it out to be! To be clear, I knew it wasn’t going to be simple. And I’m extremely lucky because my son loves to play and learn. Even still – it’s me who just isn’t living up to my own expectations.
The one thing that I have learned about trying to live up to my Pinterest mom aspirations is that it just isn’t attainable. I make sure Stokely and I have lots of fun crafting and learning together through our KiwiCo boxes every month. And we get five books a month through Amazon’s Prime Book Box for Kids, so he’s for sure a reader. If anything, I also know that I have the birthday parties down pat too!
But we don’t do all of the “learning” games I had hoped. He’s not on some super, fantastic schedule everyday. And I don’t make cute, fun meals for him. But I’m slowly learning that that’s okay because it’s not always what’s important. The time we spend together will matter more in the long-run than any “activity” we plan and that’s what I have to remind myself of everyday.
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