The last Friday before half-term is cake sale day, it’s one of those school traditions that we’ve readily slipped into; the children are given a paper plate at the beginning of the week and asked to return it decorated and full of sweet treats ready to be sold after school.
I baked my go to Martha Stewart choc chip cookies last night ready for today (Boo battled a sky high temperature last night so ironically was off school today) – I even Snapchatted the scene in my kitchen : Cabernet Sauvignon and Cookies in case you were wondering! Yet why didn’t I add a snap of my baking efforts on our closed parent Facebook group?
I think I know why. With the recent growing trend of a warts and all portrayal of parenthood – in particular motherhood – there seems to be quiet undercurrent of reverse judgment when it comes to how much we do. I’m a massive fan of stripping the ideal myths and ridiculous expectations of motherhood pushed by mainstream media for far too long. But I have to wonder if it’s just another way of dividing rather than uniting mothers.
I enjoyed baking the cookies, even though it was 10pm and I had been up since 6am – I am no mythical mother, simply a mother who wanted to bake cookies – if I’d shared a snap of them on the cooling rack, I would have undoubtedly been perceived as showing off from a self imposed higher level of ‘mother’; that couldn’t be further from the truth. We all have those moments of not giving 100% and that’s ok, it’s also ok not to feel as if you have to share these less than perfect moments digitally.
It’s not a case of sometimes winning or sucking at parenting it’s about being a parent. Period. I’m not prepared to make a choice between Stepford of Slummy; I chose to be a mother and that’s what I’m doing… mothering.
I wish we had bake sales so I could be that parent – not the showing off one, just the parenting one x