Reality

An old friend from college recently blogged about the importance of sharing real life experiences, rather than creating unrealistic images of ourselves through social media. After some thought, I realized that people's perception of me may not be totally accurate. People who know me only through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may think that my house is usually clean. What they can't see, though, is that the pictures I take are almost always strategically cropped to avoid showing a pile of dirty laundry or a folded-up dirty diaper that hasn't yet made it to the trash.

I think it's important for parents of young children, especially, to share our realities with each other. If nothing else, it allows us to see that we are normal when we ignore a mess a little longer than we'd like to, or have a "bad parenting" moment, or go a couple days without a shower (ahem). These things shouldn't embarrass us. They are our reality. Due to my job, and the time it takes me to commute each day, I'm away from home about 50 hours a week. When I am home, my family is my top priority. That doesn't leave a whole lot of time to be Martha Stewart. So, this is me coming clean and telling you that at this very moment, I am sitting on the couch blogging while Saved by the Bell reruns play in the background. In my pajamas. At 11:30 am. With disheveled hair and coffee breath, and a toddler who refuses to nap. Like it or not, this is who I am on a Saturday morning.

Why won't you nap, child?!

Don't worry; this blog isn't about to become a place to rant about my imperfections and failures. But I do think that it's time we stop painting an unrealistic picture of ourselves, and be up front and honest about the moments that we ALL share. This is real life, people!

Won't you join me in my quest for being real?