One of the most alienating things people tend to cite about Instagram is the expectation to make it appear as though your life is perfect.
We tend to see this in the tricks people use their bodies look flawless, but some influencers will also give us a peek behind the curtain at the other aspects of a given photo that can make a scene look more idyllic than it is.
But of course, this pressure to appear perfect isn’t limited to our bodies and our big experiences, but extends to every aspect of our lives that we want to show.
And since it’s hardly a secret that parents who see a mom doing something differently than them will often jump to criticize them, that pressure is sitting just as intensely on moms as it is on any jet-setting model.
But one mom is doing her own part to show and normalize how a life raising kids is really led. And that’s why in recent times, you’re likely to hear her welcome you to her “dumpster fire.”
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Be advised that the videos featured in this article contain explicit language
When Macgill Frutchey joined Instagram in 2016, she could recall cleaning up to make her house picture ready and leaving out the messier moments in her life.
But as she told Good Morning America, “I was losing my mind and I wanted some comic relief and I was struggling, and I knew I couldn’t be the only one feeling like I could never seem to hold it all together as a mom.”
However, this habit started to change when she was diagnosed with cancer the following year and she found solace from being open about her journey and experiences to the world.
But now that Frutchey’s been in remission for three years, she’s also decided that she should be more forthcoming about what the everyday struggles of being a parent look like for her.
In her words, “So many of us struggle and live the same (messy) life behind closed doors. Why don’t we show that? Let’s normalize that that’s what it looks like for most of us.”
That led Frutchey to start a series of videos entitled “Dumpster Fire Farmhouse,” which shows just how messy and chaotic a house full of kids can get.
As we can see, her first one came after her family had Chipotle, which is why her kids had dropped rice all over the floor.
Another one shows how her laundry room is always full of massive piles of clothes, while the third in the series reveals that her Chistmas tree still remains up in March.
And as we can see in this clip, Frutchey’s videos not only fly in the face of the Instagram-ready living spaces we’re used to seeing, but argue that the rush to chase an aesthetic can defeat the very purpose the things in our lives have for us.
As she said, “Isn’t its sole purpose just to hold where all your laundry goes? Am I missing something?”
So whether it’s to help take the pressure off each other or just for their own satisfaction, Frutchey hopes her videos can encourage other moms to stay true to themselves no matter what other people say.
As she put it, “So just take the picture. Your kid is doing something adorable. Don’t worry about the mountain of laundry on your couch behind you. We all have that, you know, but we’re bombarded with these images that show us the opposite, not the truth.”
h/t: Good Morning America
