Lifestyle, food and drink, and our family life and travel adventures.
The blogging world can be a fickle one. It can look so perfect and put together that it can seem very overwhelming to an outsider looking in at those photos of the perfect house with the perfect seasonal table decorations, and the perfect smiling children. The reality is though, that for the majority of people, life isn’t really like that.
Of course it’s ok (well I think it is) to show a more edited version of your life on social media and in blogging. Not everyone wants to show all their messy crap and parenting fails. And not everyone wants to see it either. That’s the great thing about blogging and blogs; there are so many different ones, that there is something for everyone. Messy or not. Perfect or not.
And whether we show a highly curated lifestyle or couldn’t hope to if we tried, none of us or our lives are perfect; we’re just different, and that’s ok. Some of us break out in a rash if we even look at a sewing machine, and some could do it in their sleep (I’ll let you guess which one I am 😉 But we all have things we’re good at.
I thought I’d just take a lighthearted look at what can appear to be a certain way in blogging and online, and what the reality actually often (always for some!) is. Some people just do life better don’t they.
Blog life: Wake up looking all fresh, pretty and natural with your hair all splayed beautifully over the pillow. With your clean sheets. And your pretty negligee that has slipped sexily down one shoulder. Take a selfie. The first one’s good. Upload it to Instagram. Get all the likes.
Real life: Wake up feeling like shit with puffy eyes and greasy hair stuck to your face. Skin fees nice and soft though so maybe it’s looking good. Think maybe you look ok and should probably take a selfie because you haven’t updated Instagram in a while. Take a selfie. Cry. Wonder if it’s the light so try a different angle. Throw your phone at the wall and weep. And think about booking a nose job.
Blog life: Ask your child to pose nicely in that new top. She obliges and smiles perfectly. You have a beautiful child. Feel proud.
Real life: You ask your child if you could just take a quick photo of her before she has another snack/watches something/has a complete meltdown. She ignores you and sticks her bum in the air. Drag said child over to the wall whilst bribing with chocolate and begging her to pose quickly. Or at least keep still for two seconds. Take 500 quick photos that all look like shit and blurry, and you can’t even see the clothes she’s ‘modelling’ anyway. Think fuck it.
Blog life: Wake up early, well rested. Make pancakes for your gorgeous family. Go out for the day with your family. Have a glorious day filled with happiness and sunshine. Capture all the beauty and fun on your expensive camera that creates the perfect blurry background. With your perfect children and your husband who just adores posing for 50 family photos. Go home and put your sweet children to bed. They drift off peacefully, so you put your photos on your MacBook and think how you’ll hardly need to edit them at all. What a lovely day.
Real life: Attempt to go out for the day with your family. You need some content for the blog. It’s pouring with rain and you’re all knackered and grumpy after a bad nights sleep. No-one will get dressed and you have no ironed clothes. The child won’t eat the breakfast cereal she usually loves. You consider sacking it all off and putting a film on, but it’s the end of the month and you really need some ‘Me and Mine’ photos. Make it out the door and force everyone to take photos as the light is fading. Why don’t they realise if they just smiled we could all piss off home? Give up and wonder how much you can edit the photos without them looking too weird.
Blog life: Wake up and take a sleepy selfie. You don’t even need a filter this morning. Share it to snapchat, Instagram and Facebook too. You’ve woken up looking as fresh as a daisy. Check your emails. Smile as you read a lovely email from a PR who gets your name right and has obviously read your blog a bit. She wants to pay you £150 for a post that you’d been planning to write anyway. Feel happy and reply straight away.
Real life: Get woken up by your too early alarm. Feel shocked and saddened that it could possibly be morning yet, you only just went to sleep didn’t you? Have a quick check of all your social media even though you should be getting up and hope that you have some interesting notifications. Ooh, twenty notifications on Twitter… Oh someone just said thanks for the follow to a few people and loads of people have retweeted it. Think people are strange. And annoying. Check your emails. Ooh one from a PR! Could today be the day you get your big blogging break? Ooh it’s for a good company. Keep reading. Oh. They want you to write a post about something random to be in *with a chance* of winning a £20 toy. But they *might* promote it on social media to their 200 followers! Sigh. Drag yourself out of bed and try not to cry with tiredness. Repeat daily.
I do think it’s fine that we often show the prettier side of our lives online, but seeing other people’s can often make us feel inferior, so we just have to remember that it isn’t all real. For some people a lot of it probably is, sure, but they might not show that actually they are suffering from depression, or that they are incredibly lonely. We never know what is really going on in people’s seemingly perfect lives, so we need to try not to let all the pretty affect ours too much. And even if some people’s lives are perfect, ours aren’t, f*ck it!
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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