Let’s face it, this parenting gig is hard and not one of us has it down to perfection all of the time, so let’s get real with each other here. StopCOMPAREnting!
To celebrate the real side of parenting – the one we don’t always see through our social media feeds – the Quaker brand is calling on Canadian families, like yours and mine, to join the #stopCOMPAREnting movement and embrace life outside of the square. Those picture perfect images we see on instagram or facebook are manufactured that way, they’ve been cropped, edited and layered with filters, it’s our highlight reel for life! Think of the internet like a movie, when you go to the theatre you only see the final version. The make-up, special effects, and one hundredth take of the same scene, THAT’s what gets shared. You don’t see all the bits on the cutting room floor, THAT’s real life, the trenches of parenting. The day to day bits of life are hardly glamourous but they mean just as much.
Hey look, I’m completely guilty of this as well. I love me a pretty picture! Want to see a vacation picture of my kiddo at the beach?
Oh that little peanut always stops right where he is to stare at my camera when I ask him to! NOT! lol I lost count on how many pictures I took before getting to this one, thank goodness for digital photography!
You know what though? That first picture might have been the one I shared on social media, but these ones right here, these ones truly show his personality! They may not all be pinterest worthy, but they are the many beautiful faces of my little boy and definitely worth celebrating!
The Quaker brand asked me to help spread the word to Canadian parents, we want you to celebrate your confidence by showcasing the authentic, unpolished and beautiful side of parenting! We should do that more often right? We all know the truth anyway. You can’t get that perfect meal on the table without making a mess along the way, and the mess is where all the hard work, heartfelt conversations, and laughter happens. Those bits are worth sharing! The perfectly IMperfect parts of life.
The Quaker brand is championing the confidence of Canadian parents to start celebrating all the good things we do as parents, no matter what it looks like and time to stop COMPAREnting ourselves to the perfection we so often see on social media. Life isn’t perfect and neither are we, let’s go ahead and let the messiness of life shine!
This video from Quaker right here, tells it all! Embrace the real side of parenting and share your unfiltered family moments using the #stopCOMPAREnting hashtag, I can’t wait to see what you share!
This post was brought to you in partnership with the Quaker brand, all opinions are my own.
With parenting it’s just like taking a photo – you experiment to get the best result possible. Parenting’s complicated since 1) it involves children 2) they are all different and require different parenting. I remember having to tell my kids off (all 7) for something or other and sent them to their rooms. One by one they came back and apologised until just one was missing. The stubborn little madam didn’t think of apologising and I had to go to her in the end. What’s good for most isn’t always the best solution.
Wow, you are definitely an expert raising 7! I find it amazing how different kids are even with just my 3. What works for one, doesn’t always work for all of them!
We all do it differently and all our kids are different who need and want different thing!
This is why I love my best friend. We can talk about the ugly side of parenting and not judge each other just support. I wish more were like this!!
Everyone needs a friend like that!
I was just at the party. I hate comparing my boys or myself to others. I’m OK with not comparing myself to other moms BUT, I find it hard not to compare my oldest son to others. When I see tweets celebrating milestones met or exceeded, or parents talking about their kids being on the honour roll or getting great grades, it hurts. My oldest son is on the Autism Spectrum. He is having a rough time at school right now and when I hear such awesome things happening for other kids, it hurts and makes me sad. I try to “let it go” but it’s hard. I want the best for my boys.
I can totally understand that. Sometimes I wonder why parents share so much about their kids online anyway. Kids need their privacy too. Even as much as I share on my blog, I tend not to share every little daily accomplishment and goal scored, it’s unnecessary.
Agreed! I totally agree. Over sharing isn’t good.
This post makes such a great point!
I just try and stop and breathe. I realised that even if other people are judging me for something, I don’t actually care!
It’s actually easier when you get to that confident stage where you don’t care what other people think!
Yes! That’s why I’m glad I can talk to my friend about the day-to-day stuff and not be judged!
sounds like a good friend to have!
It is so true that we often just share what we want people to see not the reality. We need to embrace the fact that we are all different and we don’t need to compare ourselves to others. Sometimes the “unfiltered” part of our life is what others do want to see. Love the unfiltered pictures of your boy by the way!
These are all great pictures, and yes I love the digital camera, just keep on snapping, I do not own a camera but the one on my phone works pretty good to capture all those moments!!
I do love the poses you captured,handsome young lad !
Parenting is a tough job and there are sadly no guidelines to help us on our journey as every kid and situation is unique!
He looks so cute in the pics you took,
It’s funny how many beside the scene pics we take till we get the one we want to post.
Sometimes the random, real life imperfect pictures of kids are the best !
Parenting is tough and it’s even tougher when you compare your imperfect kids/life to a so called perfect family.
I totally agree, my son and daughter are so different from each other. They had different needs so what work for one didn’t work for the other. We tried our best.
Great post! We all need to stop being so hard on ourselves!
Why does everything in life have to be a competition? Driving, how we look, what we do, how we parent….let’s just start accepting that we are all at different levels, with different skills, backgrounds, experience and want.s. We are different and that is good.
different IS good! You are so right about that!
Wonderful post! We need to stop comparing and realize that what we see on social media isn’t always the truth.
Completely agree, perfection is unattainable and when you focus on comparing you miss whats right in front of you!
so so true
I’m showing my age here, but raising a family is not like the old show “Leave it to Beaver”. Parenting always has its ups and downs.
I totally remember that show! lol
YES! I love this new movement. We need more of this! to stop comparing other parenting (and everything else all together) live your life and stop worrying about how others are living theres