At our California Retreat a few weeks ago, one mom said that her favorite thing I've posted on this blog was a photo of my messy dining room table (here). She said she loved seeing that other moms, even moms who seem to have it together like me ("together" isn't really how I feel most of the time - sort of surprised I could come off that way!) have messes in their homes - a lot. Her comment led into a nice little discussion of how great it would be if all the bloggers out there published occasional photos of their not-so-beautiful moments and offered more glimpses of how their family and home really looks on a regular day.
Blogs are wonderful. I love gathering inspiring ideas and keeping up on the events of friends' and family members' lives via blogs.
But they can also be time-suckers or worse - they can get us all caught up in the dreadful "compare snare."
Of course, whether blog-reading is time-sucking, depressing or uplifting is mostly up to the attitude and boundaries of the person reading the blog.
But wouldn't it be pretty refreshing if all of us who had blogs made a point of being "real" and sharing some of the hard and messy stuff a little more often, so we can help readers see that we're all human, that we're all learning, that we're all struggling sometimes - and that we all live in houses where messes happen?
I'm not suggesting that we all complain and "let it all hang out" or share anything that would embarrass our family members or ourselves - we all need to keep many things private and sharing our woes and messes all the time with everyone else isn't good for anyone. But wouldn't it be nice to see more posts on more blogs that help us see that we're all dealing with lots of the same messes and hard stuff?
Check out this great post by my dear friend April and join in our "messy moments movement" if you like! Just put your links to your "messy moment blog posts" in the comments section on my blog or on April's if you like. And maybe we can all help each other to see that really, motherhood is messy - physically and metaphorically - and that's OK. You can't have a lot of the beauty without at least some of the mess. So let's share some of our beautiful messes, shall we?
6 comments:
Love this idea. Although, I truly try not to post anything that would be embarassing to my family. The messy stuff that I do would be different! ;-)
Love this too - I think sharing your most 'human moments' can make you the most relatable. I often lament how much I must annoy my hubby or my cooking flops!
As most of my blog is about cooking and my family I have shared my flops as well as my successes. Here's a good example:
http://www.frillsinthehills.com/2010/01/just-to-prove-i-am-indeed-human.html
I was just on a FB page where people were leaving comments about President Packers talk and I came accross your picture, with someone elses name and a comment that I know you wouldn't have made. Just wanted to give you the heads up. I linked to the persons FB page her name is Samantha Fox. Good luck.
I did a post about it too after reading April's! Great idea! After all, we all have our days...
http://ourmostofthetimehappyfamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/real-life.html
Sorry to disagree, but I don't think your kitchen table should be classified as messy!
I'll show you messy:
http://mleballard.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-car-please.html
Hi Saren-
Found your blog through Shawni. What a great thing you have going with Power of Moms. love this post idea as well. my whole life is messy
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