Not a "Pinterest kind of blog", or How I'm letting go of the Pinterest guilt !
This isn't a Pinterest kind of blog. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Pinterest ! You just have to look at my account to know it's true : 4582 pins & 56 boards !
I've been on Pinterest since august 2011, at a time where it was not as famous as it is now, before there was a Pin it button everywhere. I'm not saying that to brag that "I was on Pinterest before it was cool ", but just to say that I'm not new to the world of pinning. I can easily say that I was quite addicted to it the first year(s) Now I'm better, and even took it off my phone years ago when I realised how much time I was spending on the app. Pinterest is great ! Over the years I learnt a lot from this funny website, but most importantly I tried a lot of ideas that I found there : - easy recipes. I discovered this simple salmon one and use it almost every week since :)
Salmon in a bag
- I found tips to make flight travel easier with young kids - or tips to move with young kids > we have moved so much these last few years that my 4 years old boy has already had 5 houses and lived in 3 different countries ! So we are used to big moves, and to do it in a matter of few weeks time...
Moving from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2011 (when Ewan was 17 months)
Moving from France to Hong Kong in 2014 (when Ewan was 4 and Ulysse was 17 months) It was our second time moving to HK ^^
- I found ideas of DIY to make my life easier - and fun crafts & games to do with my boys or just for me
Sticky piece of sheet to throw pompons or any little toys he wanted on it
I made tons of sensory boxes (with themes or not) when Ewan was younger (until the beans brought some bugs and I threw everything away !)
- I also found ideas to decorate my appartments
- tips to control my anger problem - ideas of books and movies to read & see - enough cross stitch patterns to last me a lifetime ! etc...
So as you see I really love Pinterest (and yes in case you are wondering I had failures while trying some crafts and recipes !) But 4582 pins later my problem with this great website is the guilt ! The terrible Pinterest guilt that makes my to do list so much bigger that it's already is and that makes me feel a little bit more like a failure every time I realise that I still haven't done that great craft that I've been dying to do with my sons for months ! I spend a lot of time dreaming about all these great crafts that I'll do one day with my kids ("I'll definitely do this one this month / year! I'll even make a board to remind me of what to do this month !") And inevitably I always end up on those really nice "Pinterest blogs" ! I love reading those. I look at the pictures of the moms, at the crafts they make, the gorgeous kid parties they throw for their children,and at how nice and big their houses in USA are (when you live in Hong Kong, just the idea of having a craftroom for me, or a huge playroom is...well, just an idea, a dream ! And I can't complain because we are very privileged with what is considered here a big appartment !) For example, when I see pictures on Pinterest of playrooms like this one...
...of course I find it very nice and would love something like this, but really now I think 2 things :
1) where would I put a tipi in my small living room ?? 2) my boys would destroy the tipi in 2 seconds and put chalk everywhere in the house in the first 5 minutes ! I tried buying them one of those cheap folding tent, picturing them reading nicely inside, cuddling and making tons of great memories with their mom...
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​ The reality was that every time I unfold this tent, they go completely crazy and transform into little monsters who want to destroy everything in the house by throwing cushions in it and then in the air, jumping inside, walking with the tent on them... As you can see it was never used as I imagined...Well I know it's not the point, as long as they are having fun blablabla...but I ended up mad because they destroyed most of it really quickly, and I'm always yelling "don't throw this you're going to break this or that..." So no fun at all for them or me
(If you want to feel bad about your playroom/ your kid room, look here or here at those amazing ideas that you can find online and laugh at how crazy this is ^^)
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​I'm not jealous (well not anymore). I don't think less of these families for doing all this great stuff and I don't stop reading their blogs when I come across one that I like. I just have to tell myself that's it's not me, it's not my life.
So here it goes, this is not this kind of pretty blog (sorry :)
And I can prove it easily by showing you the terrible DIY that I did this week.
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It doesn't look nice but I still like it. You know why ? Because the day I painted this table, I heard my boys say "waouhhhh" a million times while I was doing it. Actually they love it so much that I let them paint their chairs : my floor was all covered with paint and it took an hour to clean it and wash them properly but they had a blast ! Out the blue just like that on wednesday, after seing my little one paint more on the table than on his piece of paper, I decided to cover his mess by painting the table ! I didn't prepare anything, I just grab his brush and started like this. I changed colour a lot and he thought it was great. I didn't even wait for the colors to dry but that's ok with me.
And look, 3 days later the top of the table is already messy again, covered with ink stains. So I'm glad I didn't think too much in doing this project !
And I think that's what matters in that "Pinterest conflict" : to know that's it's ok like that too : imperfect ! To know that it doesn't have to be as pretty as you see it online to make you or your family happy. I'm tired of feeling guilty because I didn't do the 10 000 crafts that I wanted to do with Ewan these last 3 years, or because I didn't cook this recipe that look so easy & delicious (and that my kids will ignore anyway because they always prefer the biscuits from the supermarket !) Or because my husband & I never go on a date even though I have 5 lists on my boards to show me "how to have a date without leaving the house / without spending a fortune..." (one day I'll go on date with my husband again, the kids won't be so small for long and we'll have some of these fun night out again I'm sure :) Sometimes I make nice things & cook delicious recipes, but it's also ok to admit that I don't have time to wait for the paint to dry, and I don't have time to do all those great things that I see on Pinterest !
I still go on Pinterest a lot, but I try to read less "craft / recipes/ tips" boards (I have enough ideas already pinned that I'll never do) and now I use it mostly as a place where I can see other people as obsessed as I am with Doctor Who, books, Jane Austen etc... And that's fine !
Oh and if you're curious my boards are here ;)
PS : Sorry if my English is not perfect, I'm French but trying my best !
