The Internet is incredible. It's full of unlimited opportunities and more knowledge than could ever be accounted for. It's changed and is still changing lives. Like it or not, it's part of our present and will be a part of our future.
And that's exciting, especially for a blogger like myself. Blogging is my hobby and it's also my job. I spend a great deal of time online and in my three years of blogging, I've seen so many good things come out of the Internet. The ability to reach countless amounts of people, to form friendships, to share advice, insight, knowledge, the ability to learn, to improve yourself, to find or create a job - the Internet has always seemed like such an amazing place full of so much hope.
But lately, I find myself virtually surrounded by a lot more negativity than maybe I've ever seen before. I stopped reading the news app I used to read a while ago, it was always doom and gloom and I didn't want to start my day off like that. But it seems that the doom and gloom bug may be catching as it seems to have spread. I'm noticing more and more negativity when it comes to things like social media and such. Some of my Facebook time line almost seems to be perhaps being affected by the current gray British weather. I'm seeing lots of criticisms, judgements, comparisons and I'm wondering where all the usual happy faces are hiding?
I've seen the word 'fake' being thrown around when it comes to describing people who mostly seem to be happy on the Internet. "Nobody is happy and grateful all the time" is something else I've seen. And both of these things I've sat and shook my head at.. I've shook my head because to the person/people who think this - you're wrong.
Everyone has bad days. Us parents know that better than anyone else. But having bad days doesn't mean we're all unhappy or not grateful. In fact, today Ethan threw the entire amount of Lego that was in his Lego tub around my kitchen, he turned his dinner upside down which went all over the floor, he then went on to throw things down the stairs after being told not to. He then tipped a pen pot out and refused to do anything I asked of him for the remainder of the day. Was I stressed? Yes. Was I annoyed? Yes. But would I have said that a bit of a bad day made feel unhappy? No. Do I feel any less grateful for my boys and for my family and our life? No.
Do I want to come on here and dedicate an entire blog post to what has stressed me out today? No I really don't. I want to pick myself up, brush myself off and know that tomorrow is a new day. This little blog of mine is my space on the web to be myself and myself is a gushy, emotional, happy, totally and utterly grateful for every single good thing in the world person. I get that some people want to read posts about how other parents have bad days too and of course I get that some people want to share their bad days with others. If it helps you to feel better than why shouldn't you. Everyone has a different approach to blogging and what they love to share. But personally I don't really want to write about my bad days - I'm all up for forgetting them as soon as I humanely can.
As a blogger and as a reader, I love nothing more than to come online and see Mums and Dads pouring their hearts out about how much they love their children, despite any challenging phases or days. I love seeing all of the beautiful photos of families. There are reasons why I want to surround myself in as much positivity as I can, but ultimately, I think it's just personal. It's just what I like. Happiness makes me feel happy. Positivity inspires me. We're all different though and it's fine that some people don't want to come online and read the gushy stuff, they'd rather read about someones hard day. And whilst that is of course totally fine, I think it's totally unfair for some people to label those that choose to perhaps share a majority of happy moments and laugh off the tougher days, as fake.
For me, I choose to blog about happiness and gush about being grateful because this is my virtual scrapbook, mine and my families memory box. Right now I love to sit and reflect on what's good in our lives, I like to take the opportunity when things are calm to sit and be thankful and my blog helps me with that. And then one day when I'm a lot older and maybe when my boys are off creating their own happy families, I want to dust of this blog and remember all of the best moments of our lives. Happiness should never be taken for granted - if anything, that's something I actually feel I really do have the experience to know about.
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