Only YOU Can Prevent Pinterest Stress

2

pindef

If you are anything like me, you initially sauntered onto Pinterest with curiosity and naiveté. Maybe you wanted a place to keep all those wedding and baby room ideas. Or maybe you had heard all the hullabaloo and just wanted to see what it was all about. “This is neat,” you think. “Now I don’t need to keep 50 tabs open on my browser at all times,” or “Now I don’t need to restart my wish list every time mine magically makes it into the trash can.” You ask yourself, “What am I going to do with all this free time I am saving by keeping everything organized in one centralized place?”

… And then you wake up the next day after a mere 2 hours of sleep with bags under your eyes that would rival those of the late Rodney Dangerfield. What. Just. Happened?!!! You can finally identify with the characters in The Hangover, though instead of piecing together a night in Vegas, you try to remember what prompted you to pin “How to crochet a Matthew McConaughey doll” at 3:00 in the morning. And after repeating this behavior almost daily (more often if you’re pregnant or getting married or planning a party), you find yourself FREAKING OUT if you so much as think about hanging a role of toilet paper without first consulting your favorite etiquette pinner.

This, my friends, is the new social phenomenon known as “Pinterest Stress,” and it’s a real thing. According to a 2013 Today survey, 42% of moms surveyed report experiencing some level of Pinterest Stress. This includes feelings of inadequacy over planning your 1-year-old’s birthday party (“But EVERYONE has custom-made smash cakes to go with a highly elaborate theme, including a gourmet food spread, matching place cards, and signature cocktails”), organizing and decorating your closet (that no one sees) to rival a Soho boutique, or preparing a Paleo-approved (yet delectable) dessert for an upcoming dinner party. Because the world is watching, people, and if you don’t measure up to the Pinterest standard, you are an inferior mom/wife/friend/general member of society.

Well, you know what? I’m here to tell you that if you feel pressure to live up to this glossy and unrealistic ideal, then that one’s on YOU. In fact, 75% of those reporting feeling Pinterest Stress identified it as self-inflicted. Your rational self knows that no one is watching your every move or judging the spacing of frames on your gallery wall, yet you still put pressure on yourself to attain an unrealistic idea of perfection.

Upon quiet, internal reflection, I started to wonder, “Am I causing others Pinterest Stress? Do people look at the random things that I pin and somehow feel that they don’t measure up?” It’s possible. I’ve pinned all sorts of crap over the years, some of which I have actually intended to follow through with. So to show you what a real Pinterest board looks like from the inside, I have decided to reveal the outcomes of a random sampling of my pins over the past year.

pinterest

Sound familiar? (If your answer is “No,” then you’re either lying or need to give me some of whatever you’re taking.) We ALL do this on Pinterest… even those who seem to have everything perfectly put together. But if you’re still feeling stressed, I’ve come up with some tips for the next time you find yourself freaking out over cupcakes.

  1. Go over to a stylish friend’s house and leaf through one of her Real Simple magazines. When you get to the dog-eared pages, start panicking for no reason. Sound ridiculous? It’s the exact same thing you’re doing when you see what someone has pinned. Think about it.
  2. On second thought, go to that same person’s house unannounced, and when she answers in a bath robe and won’t let you so much as step inside the front door because the house is such a mess, yell, “I knew it!” And then run away.
  3. Look through pics from your own birthday parties growing up and see how decked out they were. And then think about how much better your life would have been had your mom spent hours trying to perfect that macaroon recipe to go with the elaborate Sugar Plum Fairy theme that she chose… when all you cared about was getting a Teddy Ruxpin and a sugar high. My favorite birthday party was at McDonald’s, and I’m proud of that.
  4. Check out http://www.pinterestfail.com/. This should make you feel better.
  5. Wine. Not whine. Wine.
Previous articleThe Great Dog Debate
Next articleHappy Holidays From Fort Worth Moms Blog!
Helen
Helen met her husband, Devin, while attending grad school in DC. The Maine native willingly moved to Fort Worth, Helen's hometown, in 2009 to settle down and start a family. They have three beautiful girls, Clara, Charlotte, and Milly. She is an independent human capital management consultant (don't ask), which helps provide that much-sought-after rainbow unicorn known as "work-life balance." She can be found working "from home" at Avoca Coffee, practicing and teaching at Indigo Yoga, and running laps around the house with her girls. Her neglected blog covers everything from mommyhood to vocabulary to current events.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here