The Problem with Pinterest

I saw a recipe posted on Pinterest the other day for “Homemade Granola Bars”. They looked delicious in the picture, all drizzled with chocolate.  I read on…sunflower seeds…cranberries…peanut butter…granola.  Granola?  Wait, so instead of buying a box of granola bars, she wants me to buy a box of granola to put in them?  She didn’t even bother to start with oats?  What’s the point of making them at home if I am buying a finished product to put in my finished product?

I went and made a snarky comment about it, which sparked a conversation about making spaghetti sauce from scratch, do you start with canned sauce or whole tomatoes? I had just made spaghetti sauce starting with canned tomatoes and I was pretty darn proud of it, thank you very much. Which got me thinking…why do we do this to ourselves? How good is good enough, ladies? How homemade is homemade enough? If I make chocolate chip cookies, is there less love in them because I sliced them and threw them on a pan?  Am I a better mom for making them from scratch?  Is the lady who grinds her own whole wheat flour more of a woman than I am?

So when I see these ladies on Pinterest who have taken step by step photos of “These taste just like real Twinkies except I used quinoa and almond milk for the cream filling” (and by the way, she ground the almonds herself) it drives me nuts!  Do we really need a play by play of how you sew your own paper towels, had your baby potty trained at three months and feed your family of seven on $75 dollars a month by keeping a goat in your backyard?

But I am guilty of it, too.  One of my greatest priorities has been making sure everyone that is home sits down to dinner together every night of the week.  It has been awesome for our family and I glad I am able to do it, but just let me tell you about it sometime.  Just let me make you feel t-h-i-s-s-m-a-l-l for not doing it yourself.  Let me tell you about my from-scratch pizza or my cheese soup.  Let me tell you about how I made every single Christmas present with my bare hands.  I dare you to not be jealous of my awesomeness. Why do we do this to each other?

If you work outside the home and open a jar of spaghetti sauce that you bought with money from your job, you are an awesome mom.  If your family is on their own for dinner every night but you are up at five each morning packing them a lunch, you are an awesome mom. If you buy granola to put in your granola bars because your kids like them with sunflower seeds and cranberries and you can’t find that combination in the store, you are an awesome mom.  If you turn tomato seeds into spaghetti sauce, you are an awesome mom.  If you’re not a mom and you’re angry at me right now, that’s ok, you are awesome. You are a beautiful wife, daughter, caregiver, aunt, friend. You are a beautiful woman. We all are. I think I will go and pin that.