All of our modern technology is supposed to make life faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Facebook has revolutionized the way that we communicate with friends and family all over the world. Television allows entertainment to enter our living rooms at the push of a button. Pinterest is heralded (even by me) as the best thing to happen to stay-at-home-moms since the washing machine. Pinterest is the subject of my musings for the day (and today, finally, I had time for some distraction-free musing).
I recently had a discussion with a friend about how Pinterest has changed my life. I have heard it said that the pristinely organized laundry rooms and elaborate children's parties pinned and repinned make some mothers feel inadequate. I have heard talk of Pinterest-related self-esteem issues welling up in otherwise confident women. That is simply not the case for me. I delight at the recipes and party ideas and crafting inspiration. After all, I love to cook, host parties, and craft. And when it comes to the pins that relate to areas I am not gifted in, I just scroll right on by and don't have another thought about that alphabetized spice rack or whatever other maniacally organized thing is pictured.
Pinterest, I said, changed how I cooked for my family. It gave me a whole new avenue in which to find new and usually highly recommended meal ideas. Twice per month, I used to sit on the floor in front of a cabinet containing all of my cookbooks and magazines and spend hours seeking out varied and interesting things to put on the menu for the following two weeks. But, with Pinterest, I could pin yummy looking things all month long and just quickly scroll through and choose my meals when it came time to make my shopping list. Truly, all of those meal ideas and links to recipes being in one place has changed dinnertime for my family, and many others I would bet. However, taking a break from my beloved Pinterest has brought me to this realization:
I spend more time looking at recipes on Pinterest than I spend actually cooking for my family.
And that is a problem, people. It might only be me, but I am going to take a leap here and say that there are some other mommies out there with this same dilemma. That is not to say that I am going to rid my life of Pinterest forever, but I do feel convicted to make some changes and place some limits on myself. Anything that eats away that much time from my days and ultimately my life is just not okay. A friend once told me that she had her husband change her Facebook password so that she could not log in during the day while she was home alone, when she would be likely to waste the most time. I am thinking of something along to same lines for my self-diagnosed Pinterest addiction. If the fella has the only password, then I will only be logging in when he is home. If he is home, I am much less likely to sit for hours looking at everything from homemade hand sanitizer to funny quotes. I am much more likely to log in for a short while to look for ideas for an upcoming birthday party or plan the next week's meals.
My final update for the day is this: I have read 2 books start-to-finish in five days, just in the amount of time that the fella and I would usually watch tv after the little ones go to bed. I have "pinned" to my Pinterest account using the Pinmarklet installed in my tool bar. (My fella was in on that one, we were looking at baby stuff and furniture online and wanted to make sure we could find it again when we are ready to purchase.) Man-Cub is still asking about Super Mario Brothers, but has not asked for tv, movies, or any of his other games. Our family feels closer and our home feels more orderly and peaceful. Day 5=still loving it!
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