The Truth Behind My Instagram Feed [Part One]

As I’ve mentioned before, I was late to the iPhone party.  Not even fashionably late–more like “did your invitation get lost in the mail?” late.  Logging onto my Instagram for the first time last year got me so excited. I love blogging, taking pictures, and sharing them with my friends–plus who doesn’t love the gratification of people “hearting” or “double-tapping” my photos, which are just extensions of me, right?

After a few months, without realizing, I began seeking out scenes that I could post instead of just living my life as usual. In building up my Instagram feed, I wanted to be able to look back and see my life through the eyes of what others see.  Which I hoped would come across as fun, creative, and cute.  But oh my goodness–I quickly came to realize that my Instagram feed is NOT an accurate portrayal of real life all the time.

Yes, I really do think my child is most beautiful kid on the planet with the sweetest spirit to match, but I rarely post when he’s not being so perfect or adorable.  I also never post a picture of the piles and piles of laundry that I consistently pretend are not there.  And I never post a picture of the last-minute meals that I feed my family.  (Oh, grilled cheese for the 2nd night in a row?  Awesome.)

My point is this: Instagram (or insert any social media) does NOT always reflect real-life–so we can’t allow ourselves to compare and get discouraged. Take heart mommas! As many beautiful feeds as you follow, just know that most have children who refuse to eat or sleep too, dishes that pile up, cheerios collecting dust underneath couches, or meals that burn or are unplanned. You aren’t the only one and YOU are a wonderful mother with a beautiful life and family–whether if its in Lo-Fi or not.

So in an effort to breed more transparency in this crazy world of social media and remind all you mommas out there that life doesn’t always fit into a perfectly colorized square, here is an honest breakdown of one of my most recent photos:

Here is what I posted:

See how crafty and creative I am with giving him an activity that resembles cooking while I’m cooking AND that works on his motor skills?  Just send my mother of the year award in the mail please…

This is the truth:

Yes, just SECONDS after I posted this pic, I heard a crash and then saw rice fly everywhere! I never knew how hard rice was to clean up until I found grains for 3 days.  The activity didn’t last long, and he started screaming only moments after.  Not to mention that I’m trying to cook at the same time, so the crying doesn’t stop until I step away from the pot and hold him.  That is, until the pot starts to boil over and I have to put him down, which only results in more screaming and crying. Whew!

Now, what if I had waited and posted the Pinterest-sensory-activity-gone-wrong pic instead?  You’d probably get a good laugh and relate more to that scene than the one I painted first.

I’m definitely not saying that we should only see the disasters of motherhood or the hard days to make other moms feel better about their own mishaps, but what would it look like if we shared it all as it happened instead of just zeroing in on the highlights?

Interested in what this looks like? Stay tuned for Part Two to see a few examples and ways I keep myself in check and try to be more honest in my feed.