I thought long and hard about what Mommy Powers first blog post should be and one theme kept running through my head…keepin' it real. Whatever happened to keeping' it real? Maybe it's just me, but folks seem so "fake" nowadays.
Perhaps it's just social media in general, everyone trying to keep up with the Joneses. I don't want to keep up with the Joneses, because the Joneses are up to their ears in debt! Mr. Jones is having an affair with his secretary and Mrs. Jones is hitting the martini bar by 12 noon! Their kids are experimenting with drugs and having unprotected sex every chance they get! But you'd never know it by looking at them, or talking to Mrs. Jones. Ask her how her she's doing and she'll tell you Sally Sue just made the honor roll for the 500th time in a row, Jr. is the star quarterback on his football team and Little Johnny made first chair in band again! But deep inside, Mrs. Jones is falling apart, her life's a mess and she's too vain to say anything.
Why do we lie to each other? Why do we pretend everything is hunky-dory when it's not? No one has a "perfect" life so why do so many people want you to believe theirs is? I just don't get it.
Then there's the mom that posts how much she loves her child because he made the honor roll for the 1000th time! Of course you love him, what's not to love?! Loving a child like that is easy! LOL! My oldest has not made the honor roll in years! He has ADHD & it is a struggle to get him to do his homework…not that he is not capable, but because he just does not "want" to! He challenges me on a daily basis- I have to constantly nag, yes nag, him to do his schoolwork. But you know what, I love him anyways! He is my son, he may not make straight A's, but he's my boy and I am proud of him.
That's keepin' it real. I believe we are on this earth to encourage and help one another. How can we do that when everyone is walking around pretending everything is fine- that they have a perfect life and if your life is not perfect like theirs, then there is something terribly wrong with you. My life is not perfect, far from it. I struggle with far more than I care to share with you in this post, but I try to keep it real. I ask for help when I need it. I ask for prayers, I keep it real.
I don't want anyone to look at my life and think it's perfect, because that's not real. That's not something you can live up to. Just like all the models on the covers of magazines, they don't really look that good. Those pictures are photo-shopped and manipulated to make them look that way. But you know what, there is still some teenaged girl in Iowa starving herself right now because she wants to look like the covergirls she sees in the magazines!
Life is not perfect, it gets messy and that's all right! Don't pretend everything is fine if it's not. Keep it real!
Never stop using your Mommy Powers,
MP
