For me, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter et al have become the doyennes of a sanitised and edited version of everyday life. Perfect pictures of perfect bodies, perfect families, perfect homes and perfect holidays fill up our news feeds and I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling the constant pressure to make sure that my life emulates these idyllic lives lived by my 'friends.'
Well it doesn't.
Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. I weed out the best pictures, crop them, tint them and post them. Look at me and mine - aren't we great? Well we are, to me, but we're also normal.
I spend most of my time these days unbelievably tired with bags under my eyes so big and so dark you can barely see my eyes. I have a child that doesn't sleep and one that wakes up at the merest hint of a cry from her baby brother. By the time they are both tucked back up into bed, fast asleep at 5.30am, it's almost time to get up and go to work.
I work to live. The kids are packed off to nursery so that I can spend the day taking care of other people's children, making slightly more than I pay in childcare. I definitely enjoy the stimulation that comes with working alongside my peers - and school holidays are awesome, but it's a good job I look so scarily tired most days, as no pupil wants to tangle with a grumpy, unpredictable and tired teacher.
At home, the domestic treadmill is relentless and I frequently fall off. The washing lies in unconquerable mountains in the spare room waiting to be ironed or, more likely, folded without ironing if I can get away with it. Cooking is an effort and I'm more Little chef than Master chef these days; if it's quick, vaguely edible - then who cares about nutritional content! Sometimes... and I say this in a whisper...I let my kids watch TV. It's a simple formula: TV+kids= quietforatleast10minutes= Imightgetthehooveringdone. This is life for most people. But we don't post pictures of that do we?
Well, I've had enough of feeling sub-standard and in an attempt to reclaim the beauty of normalcy I'm just going to post the truth. So here's my life - the unedited one.
Let's see how long I can keep it up!
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| My beautiful (normal) home and the never ending pile of ironing. |
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| 9am - curtains still drawn and dog has snuck upstairs for a nap, sometimes I think I'm fighting a losing battle! |
