The Pressure of Perfection

I officially wore a coat this weekend. Ok it was a vest, but whatever. It feels like fall. I’m kind of struggling with outfits because my hips are still way too big to fit into most of my jeans and it’s getting too cold for dresses. I’m pretty sick of my lululemon leggings, so I needed some inspo stat. I started looking at some posts from last fall, which is making me want to do my bi-yearly clothing swap this week, but it feels too soon!

As I was putting together this post, I planned to write more about my clothing swap and fall outfits, but something has been on my mind lately and I wanted to talk about it. So while I hope you enjoy the many fall outfits pictured below, I hope that writing out my thoughts on the pressure of perfection not only makes me feel better, but resonates with some of you as well.

Lately I’ve been seeing all of the bloggers I follow doing some amazing things like cool video content and a ton of creative new content. While they’re seemingly out there creating incredible content and traveling to beautiful places, I feel like I’m struggling to get up regular old posts let alone stay awake all day and get the laundry done. I felt that way throughout my pregnancy and even more so now that I have a baby.

It feels like I’ve spent the last whole year just trying to stay afloat and I’m falling behind. It’s been a constant struggle to focus on both my health (and now baby) and creating beautiful content. I see other bloggers have babies and then slide right back into their outfit posts, looking as cute as ever and I have no idea how they do it… full time nannies maybe? Or is it that I just don’t have what it takes?

I’m guessing that I’m not the first new mother who compares herself to her peers and wonders how everyone else seems to have it all figured out, while she is trying to hold it all together. There is a pressure to be perfect as a mother, in your career, as a wife, and as a woman. I think that as a blogger this is amplified 100x because everyone expects me to have a Pinterest-perfect life… But I don’t!

Right now my life is a lot of being at home and trying to figure out this whole motherhood thing, covered in spit up, poop, or both. There is just no possible way that it is ever going to look the way that it used to, but after a weekend spent with friends, not worrying about my Instagram or taking new outfit photos for today’s blog post, I finally realized that that’s ok. I can share my experiences with you as they are now, even if they aren’t always pretty.

I’m hoping they’ll be relatable and sometimes even helpful.

I’m going to spend some time this week thinking about how I want my content to look going forward. I’ve been trying to not focus too too much on motherhood posts because I was so worried that you guys wouldn’t be into it, but the reality is that my entire life is being a mom right now… I’m not sure how long that period lasts but I’m guessing at least until I’m done breastfeeding and I’m not physically attached to my baby all day long.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you guys what you want to see more or less of. When I first got pregnant, I did a survey, and while most of you wanted more content about that, there was a big group who wasn’t into it. Let me know if you have any posts that you want to see, topics you want me to cover, or stuff you want me to skip. It will help me gather my thoughts for what Lemon Stripes is going to look like in the coming months.