One of the great things about the internet are all the blogs to read out there. You can find some truly wonderful ones. Some are very inspiring and some are just plain funny. Its kind of like looking in someone's window..Watching their lives unfold before your eyes. Sometimes though you have to take what you read with a grain of salt.
While reading another blog written by a mom who writes about her life and her three kids I encountered one of these. The blog I was reading was about the daily frustrations of raising three kids with another on the way, and I have to admit the woman is hilarious. Mostly because I can remember having the same frustrations once upon a time.. She mentioned that she could no longer read a particular blog she likes to follow because it made her feel like a bad mom.
She shared a piece of the offending blog and it is as follows:
"On a recent day in December on a day much like any other day this year, I watched as
Calvin rose earlier than anyone else in the house to take care of his chickens. He
opened the coop and changed the water, freshened the food, brought them scraps, and
gave the bedding a stir. Coming back in, with his littlest brother just toddling into the
kitchen, Calvin made them both breakfast. There was some reading after that in front
of the fire, and a game of chess with his older brother. At midday, he volunteered to
help his Papa butcher the remaining turkeys taking breaks here and there to build
his tree house, and target practice with a bale of hay with his home made bow and
arrow. As evening neared, we left the house, stopping first at the natural foods store
where he sells his eggs. Proceeding to the city, my little guy joined his friends back
stage, and donned his black tights, ballet slippers and stage makeup and danced onto
the stage. In between these moments, I am certain that he also held the baby while I
showered, knit a row or two on his scarf, probably polished his Converse and may
have made his sister and orange fleece hat. and definitely listened to some hip hop."
WOW, all that ... the kid is just 11 at the time she posted this.. The blogger who is now no longer her subscriber went on to express her disdain , well rage , really, at this other blogger. I thought surely this must be made up or she misread, because no one has a kid that perfect. If they do they hatched him from a pod. I went and looked at the blog myself, and what I read were months and years of posts all depicting this storybook perfect life of a mother with five children all under 11, all in ballet, all very helpful to their parents, all perfectly well behaved. Raised in a perfectly neat as a pin sprawling home (with pictures to prove it) Where nothing preserved is ever served and where all the food is home grown and raised. The mom makes all her own personal care products and laundry detergent, diapers and sews each piece of clothing on her families backs all by hand. Most of their furniture is hand made. The children never fight or talk back and never speak a single word that isn't sugary sweet. Oh and did I mention that each child has learned to knit and spends several hours each day making the mom wonderful handmade crafts to express their love for her. Oh yeah and there is no T.V in their home.
Really???? Come on! If I was to take this blog at face value I would think I was doing something wrong.
Because a day in my life never looked like that. Not in anyone's life that I know for that matter. Not even the people I know who don't have children, let alone 5 kids. Most of my days while raising my children were at best controlled chaos. Some days were a downright battle. Even now with an empty nest most days are barely better than chaotic. SO while I don't know that the blog is fictional, I am betting that it is dressed up a bit... But then I spent part of my day explaining to my puppy that going potty on the floor 10 seconds after we were outside and she refused to potty in the yard is not ok. Of course this conversation ensued because i discovered the puddle by stepping in it, so what do I know?
I do know this , if you want to write a blog you should. But PLEASE keep it real. No you don't have to write about every disastrous thing that happens but please don't dress it up to the point of having everyone who reads it want to hang you in your own perfectly knitted scarf. You cannot please everyone, but somewhere there will be a person who will measure themselves by your measuring stick and find they don't measure up. Everyone , everywhere has a bad day sometimes and if you are that insanely perfect, then please lie to us once in a while so we know you are human. I for one will stick to reading the blogs that I know are real , where life is crazy and children are not pod people, just crazy adorable and frustrating sometimes.
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