Woman writes viral post about 'staged' social media: 'Mamas, don't compare yourself'
A mother of six took to Facebook to warn other mothers not to compare their lives with the seemingly perfect images they see on social media. Now, her message has gone viral.
Last week, Jen Flint wrote a Facebook post detailing a recent incident she witnessed at a St. Augustine, Florida public pool. While spending time with her children and her husband, Russel, the family saw a stylish mother in a matching bathing suit with her seemingly four-year-old daughter, according to TODAY.
"The mom, with her perfect loose curls tied up in a coordinating scarf... proceeded to spread out pool toys and sunscreen on a matching towel," Flint wrote on Facebook. "Then after finding just the right angle and the right light, Mama pulled out her tripod and took a few selfies with her daughter."
According to Flint, the little girl repeatedly asked her mother if she could go into the pool to play, but the mother would not let her in until she snapped some perfectly posed photos.
"[The] little one smiled big and said 'cheese' like she'd done it a million times," Flint wrote. Eventually, the girl was permitted to enter the pool to swim while her mother took another phone call.
"Little One politely and repeatedly asked 'Mama, can you come in the water with me, please?' She was ignored. 'Mama, come play with me?' she asked 4 more times. Mama glanced over at her but never got off the phone," Flint claims.
Then, to Flint and her family's surprise, the mother ended her phone call after ten minutes, "collected the sunscreen that was never applied, the water toys that never touched the water, and then her daughter and left the pool."
"I sat there thinking about what I'd witnessed for awhile afterwards," Flint shared. "I imagined the photos she took being perfectly edited and posted to social media with a caption like 'Pool time with my girly! #Makingmemories'."
While she is not judging the woman's parenting, she felt the need to address how staged the seemingly perfect images are on social media.
"Somewhere another Mama is going to be at home with her children, the house a mess from their play, her hair unruly from a day of mothering and her clothes dirty with spit up or peanut butter," Flint wrote. "She's going to look at that photo and she is going to compare herself to the perfect Mama at the pool... She's going to feel like a failure."
"What we see on Social Media isn't always real. Sometimes and often it's a complete set-up. It's staged and filtered and it's counterfeit," she continued. "Mamas, don't compare yourself. You ARE enough! You are amazing and the very best part is that you are REAL! Your dirty shirt and your messy house and your happy children are real and they are proof that you are doing it right!"
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