Tuesday, June 16, 2015

campaign for #reallife



i am officially tired. i am tired of beautiful instagram posts. i'm tired of the super cheerful tweets. i'm tired of hashtags like "blessed" and "choosejoy". i'm campaigning for #reallife.

let's face it. we are bombarded everyday with the best "instagram" versions of everyone we see on social media. we see beautifully filtered photos, we see the children getting awards, we see the sports accomplishments. we get posts of green drinks for breakfast, screenshots of how far people ran today. we even get pictures of tennis shoes as people head to a workout. let's be real people. we know you are only taking a picture of your shoes because you aren't wearing makeup and your hair is pulled back in a pre-workout style. how about a picture of your face after a workout with the hashtag #imtoosexy? where is that picture? where are the posts that say, "my son's team never won one game. #worstrecord and #lifelesson? where are the pictures of giant piles of laundry and dirty dishes? where are the posts that admit we have some pretty horrible moments? don't get me wrong, i work everyday to #choosejoy and i love my crazy life and my kids but i don't need to include something perfect in everything i write. i need to be real. i need to show some #reallife.

don't get me wrong. i love to see the accomplishments of other people's kids. i love to see everyone doing well. however, when that is all people post, i have to wonder what it is they are hiding. what are we so afraid of? clearly, none of us are as perfect as the instagram versions of our families we portray. we have issues. all of us. we all have good days and bad days. sometimes we have amazing moments where we are #winning at parenting. other days we feel like we are barely getting by. is it really so frightening to share a balance of both?

the truth is, i need to see it. i need to know there are other people who struggle like i do. i need to see people wading through the good and the bad. i need to feel connected with other parents out there. it's exhausting to compare ourselves to other family's facebook versions of themselves. we will never measure up. ever.... unless we all start to get real with one another.

so here it goes. just in case you felt alone in your struggles today:


  • my daughter had a fever yesterday and i sent her to camp today. i am officially "that" mom. i spent way too much money on the camp she was missing to have her miss any more days. #keepingitreal
  • my middle son was pulled aside at a sports camp today for having a bad attitude. this is a normal occurrence with him. #awesome
  • this is the fit my youngest threw...because i put his chips on a plate instead of in his hand. #seriously



  • this is my youngest yesterday. he isn't wearing his pants. he had an accident a few hours before and i didn't have the energy to climb up the stairs to get him a new pair of pants. he answered the door to a solicitor like this. 


  • my living room looks like this. every. single. day.


  • i do laundry every day. still, at the end of the week, this is what i look forward to each monday.


so, what can you share about your #reallife? i can't be the only one with stories like these. go ahead. let the world know. we are all in the same boat together. we might as well be honest with one another. i'm betting #reallife will mean #freedom for parents everywhere. 

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