We are moms in a whole new era and therefore we have to deal with things that our moms never had to worry about. A lot of our world is involved with things through the online medium. We see pictures of each others' lives far more than we did ten years ago, which is great for feeling more knowledgeable about each others' lives. But it definitely has some negative side effects as well.
Here's an example scenario.
You had a rough morning with your kids. You argued with your oldest child about wearing appropriate clothing to school in the 30 degree weather, had to deal with a 4 year-old who didn't want to clean up any of his own messes, and made about 30 trips to the bathroom with the potty-training twins. You are feeling exhausted and emotionally drained. Not to mention that you didn't get a ton of sleep last night. So naptime comes, and you sit at the computer to peruse Facebook, check your email, and see what's going on in the world.
As you scroll through your friends' posts, a lot of whom are moms as well, you look at the pictures of their beautiful children playing happily together. You look in the background of the photo to see that their house is actually clean. You start to compare yourself to these photos. My house is a wreck! My kids are lucky to even have clothes on today! You start to feel envious of others' lives and situations. You feel like you aren't a good mom. You start to feel discontent.
Why? Comparison. When we choose to look horizontally at what we think others' have and we don't, we feel dissatisfied and unhappy. When in reality, we are not getting realistic glimpses of people's real lives through blogs and Facebook. Most of the time we are getting the best moments of people's days. Mothers forty years ago, had no idea what their friends were up to unless they called them and got to hear first-hand, the screaming children in the background.
I have learned that I am much happier when I keep myself focused above, looking vertically to my Heavenly Father. Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said,
"A grateful person is rich in contentment. An ungrateful person suffers in the poverty of endless discontentment (see Luke 12:15)." By expressing gratitude for our blessings often, we will feel more content with what we have. Instead of always seeking more, more, more. Oh, and looking at Facebook less helps too.
