I’m more of a Pinterest Mummy as I’m in the UK but the Pinterest Mom seems to be the recognised term. This is probably not what you’re expecting to read as most Pinterest Mom posts are about how ‘not to be a Pinterest Mom with jokes and shaming seemingly fairly abundant! I have decided to write this post as I’m a little fed up of logging onto Facebook and seeing negative posts about Mums (not Dads) who craft, bake, create or make some creative memories for their children. I wanted to put down in words why I feel a bit fed up of seeing judgement towards us Pinterest Moms and please don’t shame me!
Why I am a Pinterest Mom
I love to pin activities, ideas, days out, travel, recipes, useful hacks, decor and more weird things with sticks, wood, wool and my beloved glue gun. I love to pin or make my own pins and then I want to make them. Yes I do this and here’s the weird part, (or not so weird in my mind) I don’t just do this for my kids, I do it for me, because do you know it makes me happy! I love to create new things from Pinterest or for Pinterest to keep my kids from killing each other and from bugging me that they’re bored! I love to find new recipes and make them, I love a seasonal theme to decorate and have fun with, I love seeing my toddler play for more than 5 minutes with homemade play dough or a stick man and I love seeing my tween get crafty and I also love doing some kids level of crafts myself!
Sharing our Creations is not about shaming you!
Here’s the point that I’m wanting to make and I’m sure it will be slightly controversial. Once we have tried out and created our Pinterest efforts we tend to share what we have done by pinning and sharing on social media. Here are some of the reasons why I and other Pinterest Moms share our makes.
- Firstly I share these creations because I’m a blogger and one of my aims as a blogger is to help or inspire others. This means our creations appear all over social media and on my blog and Pinterest boards.
- Why shouldn’t we celebrate our successes? It seems perfectly acceptable that men share their successes without being overly judged, so why can’t we? Why can’t us women empower each other with our succeses rather than bringing each other down.
- I do not share our crafts, bakes and makes to shame anyone or to make anyone feel bad for not wanting or doing the same hobbies as me. I do it to share them to be helpful and because I’m proud of what we have achieved however small it might be.
- I don’t share to try and make out I’m Wonder Woman or a super Mum. I’m far from that. Pinterest Moms still have bad days, days where we shout and get cross with our kids, have a Pinterest fail, burn dinner, serve our family beige food, buy shop bought and run around tearing our hair out over something or other. We are just Mums like you but with different hobbies. I also incidentally share these moments on my social media too.
- My creations aren’t a competition! This may be new news but I do not craft a jungle animal out of a cardboard toilet roll to compete with you as a mother. I do it with my child because it’s our kind of fun, that’s simply it! And again I then share this so others can find ideas if they fancy doing it.
- I don’t want to convert you! I really don’t care if you’re not making the same jungle animal, or making a Peppa Pig out of fondant icing. If it doesn’t float your boat then why would you want to do it. That’s totally fine by me and other Pinterest Moms!
- During lockdown Pinterest has got us through some hard days where the toddler getting out all the paints and the big kids having scraps of projects all over the table has got me and the kids crazily through our day. I know that might be your worst nightmare but for me it isn’t and that’s ok!
Let’s be Kind and empower each other!
Like I said above my Pinterest efforts aren’t made to compete with you. Motherhood is not a competition. I’m 100% sure there are areas of life that you’re nailing that I / we are not. We don’t have fun mass sleepovers, movie marathon nights, stay up late singing and dancing together, have fun game nights and workout together. All of which I’m sure our kids would love but it just doesn’t float my boat and that’s ok. I do however have no problem seeing others do these things, in fact it makes me smile or just scroll past without a moments thought. I wouldn’t dream of shaming you because you enjoy doing what we don’t do.
I know this post might be a little contentious to some but I just felt it needed saying, as it’s been on my mind for a while. I feel that mine and others social media experiences would benefit more if there was less shaming from other Mums. I don’t see how one persons insecurities or dreaded Mum guilt should make others feel bad for sharing their bit of happiness. And if this can go toward helping others feel better when logging onto social media or makes you feel some solidarity if you too are a Pinterest Mom then this post was worth it. To all you Pinterest Moms who like me have kept quiet whilst we get a little shamed, this post is written for you!
Ahh I love this post! Well said lovely š xx