Perfection

I've seen a lot of post going around recently, which focus on the idea of perfection. So I thought I would chip in!

When you read a blog, or follow someone on instagram or Youtube, you know their life isn't perfect. However much they try to portray that. You know that level of perfection, whether it's their home, the way their children are dressed, the tantrum free holidays they go on, is unattainable. It's not possible to have two young children and have a perfect home all the time. You know the pictures are modified, edited and filtered to look pretty.

However, if you think about it, these filters and this editing is perfectly attainable for everyone. Anyone can push the clutter to one side to take an instagram perfect photo. Anyone can edit a video to make a walk in the park look cool and fun, even if it was really full of tantrums and dog poo. With a little practice, anyone can achieve online perfection.

Online perfection, has become the norm! It's become easier and in my opinion, more socially acceptable to edit your life in this way. And here's something you may not agree with, I kind of like it!

I like editing my photos. I like pushing the clutter to one side so that my picture looks better. I like making our days out look fun and editing out the tantrums. I like being able to edit out the bad in my life. It's like a magic wand, sweeping the tantrums and mess aside and just highlighting the good things in my life.

Of course, being a parent is no walk in the park. Neither is being married. Both take work, commitment and have a great deal of stress attached to them! There are days that go totally wrong. Arguments, tantrums, tears, mess beyond imagination. But I'm choosing more and more not to capture those moments. Not to focus on them. To skip them out, especially online, because they are not the moments that really count. Not to me, anyway.

There's nothing wrong with a little editing. A little filtering. A little tweak here and there. There's nothing wrong with wanting to create a positive space on the internet where you can reflect and rejoice on the good times in your life at the end of a hard day. It's easy to do. What's not easy, is learning where to draw the line. I can see how it's easy to compare your lives with others. To feel inadequate. To feel like your life is not good enough because of someone elses edited version of theirs.

But with this kind of online persona become more and more popular and socially accepted (As I assume by the popularity of such instagram accounts), I think it's important to start looking at things from the other perspective. And perhaps instead of just dismissing these "perfect" accounts and sites as being unreal, or staged, we should start embracing them as being positive inspirations and places where you can dream and aspire to be better.

Just don't let it go to your head! Because no ones edited online life is real. But come on, they are pretty to look at, no?