Pinterest-ing -or Not

To be clear, I enjoy Pinterest. I've found a lot of great ideas. Who hasn't? Of course, I've also wasted a whole lot of time on Pinterest but, again, who hasn't? “If I just scroll down a little further, I know I'll find the world's greatest pin...” Because on Pinterest and in the Blog-o-sphere there's always a better way to do...well, everything. From budgeting, to organizing your pantry, to playing with your baby -somebody has thought of a “better” way to do it. And not only are these ideas at the tip of our fingertips, they are in our email, our FB news feed, right smack-dab in our faces.

The other day I decided to expand Peter's sensory horizons via a Pinterest-inspired activity. I filled a tote with cornmeal, some cups and spoons. Peter had fun banging the metal cups, but when it came to the cornmeal, his sole objective seemed to be dumping the tote (he has discovered dumping). So it became a fight --with me trying to get Peter to play in the cornmeal “the right way” and Peter trying to dump the tote. (Oh yeah, and that “put the tote on a beach towel” idea? Why bother? If you try this type of activity, cornmeal will find its way into the deepest recesses of your kitchen. So just plan on it.)

There was nothing wrong with the cornmeal activity. Peter may have been a bit young for it, but maybe I did expand his horizons a bit. It was just that as I wrestled with the tote while simultaneously trying to keep Ollie from devouring all the cornmeal (have I mentioned he's nuts?) and Peter was screaming at me, I couldn't help remembering the previous day's activity of watching Baby Einstein -Baby on the Go and singing along to “The Wheels on the Bus” together. That was easy. That was fun. That felt entirely natural. The problem was, that in my mind, The Baby Einstein watching thing was just the sort of activity that a lazy parent would do -something a not-at-all-creative mom would do to play with her child. While the cornmeal thing was right down awesome-mom-alley. And I realized that was a big part of why I was doing it.

So I'm here today to tell myself that it's okay. Everything I may or may not see on Pinterest is simply someone's suggestion; It is not the best way -it is not even the better way. It's okay to spend more than $200 a month to feed a family of two. It's okay if my pantry is a mess. It's okay to be a “boring” parent. Simply put, it's okay to do things in the way that comes naturally --especially with parenting. And who knows? Maybe it's even the best way.