Father's day

Like any good mommy I've spent some time on Pinterest, looking for what wonderful things I can have the girls make for their daddy for Father's day.  Two years ago it was the heart with Blaire's footprints and statement, from the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes, I love you.  Cute, right?  Last year I had them make handprint flowers with the words "our love grows".  Not bad.  Both concepts I found either online or on Pinterest because I am not an elementary school teacher!  I don't ever recall making these kinds of things for either of my parents unless it was in school.  Maybe it's because I am the youngest of 3 kids to a single mother, but honestly I don't recall any of my friends making these kinds of things either.  Which brings me to my Pinterest rant.  It's the devil!  People, elementary school teachers turned parents, I'm sure of it, starting putting up pictures of all the cute things they did with their kiddos to give as gifts, and BOOM!  Now, the rest of us, trying to be crafty but our 3 years olds stuff looks nicer- parents, are always scrambling around trying to make something cute and fun that still looks nice.  Notice, I didn't put pictures up of the aforementioned Father's Day crafts?  Really not that cute, or at least not as nice as the ones posted on Pinterest.  There is this over whelming pressure, whether or not you choose to admit it, to create all of these cutesy little crafts and home made gifts because social media has them posted all over so other parents must be doing them and you have to or you may not be as good as a parent.  Yadda yadda yadda. I know because I have fallen into that category, both ends of it, the leader of look at what we did, and the follower, oh crap here let's put your footprints inside of a heart so that you can give a wonderful gift as well.  What I've learned is that yes I can make some cool stuff and the girls really do love it and we have fun.  But, I waste so much time looking online that I never get half the shit done that really needs to get done.  Those of you making your own "upcycled" headboards and lanterns and gazebos and whatever crap Pinterest in spewing out can attest to that; though you may have this neat "upcycled" (love that word, dumbest new word in our techie language) headboard, what did you miss doing to complete that task?  So as I sit here complaining via social media how social media damns us all, making us feel like we need to be doing more, whether it's cooking, fighting for some cause, or one of these odd crafts, remember this, what you do, what you have, what you give, is more than good enough, because it's yours, not some over achievers idea that you are trying to force on yourself or your kids. 

This year, I looked all over Pinterest and just couldn't get myself to go out and get canvas and make hand prints or footprints or face prints or what ever prints; we are making a popsicle stick frame.  The girls covered it in glitter helped me glue it together and now I need to somehow make it stand up.  I take tons of pictures anyway so it seemed practical.  Because at the end of the day, as a mom, as a sane individual, practicality needs to win.  No pictures. Not because it's not nice (though I'm sure only my husband and I would ever pay for it) it's just too special to share.  That is what Father's Day is about, giving someone special something special from our heart ( not pinterests') to his.