Thought for the day – Perfect families

Perfect families do not exist.

 
We all have them, friends and family that only show and share only the happy moments, those perfect looking moments where everyone is getting along, but they are not reality! With technology we get to show other people a tiny moment in our lives and often this moment isn’t real. We don’t see the drama and trauma it took to get the perfect shot. We don’t see the struggle afterwards, the tears or anger that was built from struggling to look perfect. All we get to see is that quick moment of time that the camera caught.
 
What about all of those perfect homes? The ones where everything is in place and someone in the home has tweeted how to perfectly organise the bathroom shelf? You look at your bathroom shelf and compare the two…well please know that again they are showing you only their best “take” and their best “moment”. They are not showing you how many times they messed up recording or how quickly their perfect shelf got messed up after their children showed up from school.
 
What about the perfect clothes and makeup? Sure, you may see other parents on the school run who have been primped within an inch of their lives and they have the fancy car or newest handbag. You compare that to your messy t-shirt and car on its last leg, but do you see their credit car bills or how often everyone in the home has to wait while they are getting ready to look perfect? Do you see how scared they are of not looking perfect or how they wish they could come to the school relaxed like you are?
 
I am not saying that anything is wrong with wanting to look nice, what I am saying is that when we compare our lives to those who present as perfect we are missing what is behind that “perfection”…a normal family with struggles, issues and ugliness…just like ours.
 
Just like our family they have good moments and bad. Just like our families they have struggles, hurts, and screw-ups. Just like ours they have moments of glory, excitement and joy. The only difference is that some people are better at hiding the ugly while others (like me) kind of wear it on our sleeves for all to see. Technology doesn’t help! Some people have a talent for making their lives look like a fairy tale (again, not a talent I have).
 
So today please remember that perfect families do not exist. We all have good and bad days. We all have struggles. We all have ugly in our homes as well as beautiful moments. It is up to you if you want to share any of this with others, please just remember that when you start comparing your life to those “perfect” ones that they are choosing to only show you the good parts…they aren’t sharing the struggles, so try not to compare someone else’s life to yours…you may not be able to see their “ugly” with how they present, but it is there…it is just kind of human to not be perfect.
#therapeutic_thought_for_the_day