The simple Facebook post making parents lose it

VICIOUS things have been written, threats made and tears shed. So why are some peas in a pineapple cup sending parents nuts? Em Rusciano has the answer.

Em Rusciano

@EmRusciano

4 min read

July 30, 2015 - 10:10AM

Does this Facebook post make you angry?

I accidentally started a social media s**tstorm that got the whole of Facebook talking and my nipples weren’t even involved.

Vicious things were written, threats made and tears shed. Was it over a woman taking her kid for a jog in a $2000 pram wearing nothing more than a string bikini? No. Was it over the absolute douche lords booing AFL player Adam Goodes? No. It was all over some peas and a teeny tiny pineapple shaped cupcake holder.

On Sunday night, as I was waiting for the children to come to dinner (I had only called them 57 times, I knew it would take at least another 13 more) I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and this photo popped up.

The ‘offending’ image posted to Facebook.

MORE: How to cook healthy meals for your kids

I know the lady who posted this, she is well known for the time and effort she puts in with her kid’s food presentation. I often find myself in awe of her creations. When I saw the photo I let out a blast of laughter, I looked over at my kid’s plates and saw their dinner sitting in foil.

It was quite the contrast to the lovingly laid out fish and chips in the Instagram photo! Instead of bothering to take the fish out of the foil I’d just kinda plonked it on their plates, in other words: zero f**ks were given.

I popped her photo up on Facebook to highlight the contrast in our efforts and MOTHER OF PEARL did that upset some people. This mother’s plating up skills seemed to down right offend many, many other mothers. The comments were making my eyes water, her photo appeared to have touched all the nerves.

I was genuinely surprised, and maybe it’s my self inflated ego, but I don’t look at people who put in serious culinary effort for their kids and feel worse about myself, nor do I feel negative towards them. I just think “well done, I’m totally gonna do that one day”. And look I probably won’t but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad mother. I guess if I see something that I can’t/don’t want to do I am able to rationalise it, I know that I do other super ace things for my kids.

For instance, the effort I go to when either of my children require a costume is borderline psychotic. That’s my peas in a pineapple cup situation. My children look like they are part of a full scale Broadway production that has employed 10 seamstresses to work at 10 sewing machines around the clock. I make them go method, I have them live as the character for a period of time so that they do my costuming justice. Or as we call it in my house: they go full Meryl.

Just look!

In character.

Skillz.

Does my blatant effort make you feel rage?!

We’ve all got our thing that we go above and beyond on for our kids and it is generally the stuff that tickles us. The question I have is: what is going on for a person that some fancy fish and chips compels them tell a complete stranger that she deserves a punch in the face for cooking her kids dinner? More than one person actually wrote those words.

Isn’t there room for all of us? The mothers who knit their kid’s winter jumpers and the mothers who send their kids to school in bather bottoms because they haven’t done the washing in like, 2 weeks, and it’s really piling up and I think I may have killed someone’s cat under all those clothes because there is a death smell in there you guys, death.

Have we swung too far the other way, where the parent who gives the least of a s**t wins?! Is it now a status symbol to be slack as it once was to be super organised?! The tupperware mums vs. the laid back ones. Bloody hell I hope not, as I fall on either ends of the spectrum depending on the day of the week and the amount of wine consumed.

MORE: Four ways to put an end to mother guilt

What I do know is it seems pretty s**t to shame someone for putting in effort. Although we do live in one of the only countries where the term ‘try hard’ is considered an insult!

To the mothers reading this, we already cop a lot of crap as a collective. Last week I actually witnessed a professional stand up comic say “what’s the deal with Mums and mobile phones? They shouldn’t be allowed to have them”. Ha ha ha right? WHAT NOW?!

My point is, we’ve got enough people not taking us seriously and seeing us as some kind of tragic, washing powered obsessed sub adult group, so can we stop being our own worst enemies already?

Now enjoy some pictures from my newest Instagram obsession by a different Melbourne mother: @jacobs_food_diaries. I hope it doesn’t make you stabby. Try to let it inspire you or at the very least, as it did for me, make you hungry.