Perfect Parenting

The world is a funny old place these days. There’s absolutely no margin for error. If you do something wrong, say something out of tone or call someone out then it’s all over the Internet forever. I wonder how it felt to parent in the 90’s? The last era of parenting without all the technology we have today and social media. The era where children could play out all day, make mistakes and learn from them. Where parents would support each other without judgment and neighbours would all be there for one another. People say that we are in a supportive world because people often share mental health struggles, people make up tik tok dances and add a quote about self love, people make funny videos about parenthood and how hard it is. ‘Apparently’ it’s more accepted to admit your struggles these days, but is it? If a celebrity makes a mistake then they are cancelled by the jury of the public. If someone in a local town makes a mistake then they are in everyone’s WhatsApp group chats, sometimes people will make a Facebook status without saying a name but everyone knows who it’s about. Parents need to be perfect, we can admit that life is messy and it’s not perfect on the Internet. We can make up a little video about it, but heaven forbid you actually get caught making a mistake. If your children don’t act perfectly then it’s definitely your parenting. What other reason could there be? If your teenager isn’t as delightful as you imagined then it’s 100% down to your parenting. Absolutely nothing to do with societal pressure and the outside world. It’s just become so silly. We are human and the point of our lives is to learn lessons along the way but often we need to put on a show, show the outside world that we are perfect. Our children are perfect and so is our parenting. I wish the world went back in time like the fashion.