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Pinterest, Other Sites May Be Triggering Unspoken Competition Among Moms

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Gone are the days of simple school lunches and backyard birthday parties as the Internet may be triggering an unspoken competition between moms.

"I will come to your house and I will eat your Pinterest projects, but I'm not going to do it myself," said Courtney Berman from West Hills, who works full-time and has two children.

She says she'd rather spend her limited free time interacting with her kids rather than keeping up with the latest lunchbox craze on Pinterest.

"I see cute stuff all the time and think, 'Oh, I should really do that for Ellie,' but I don't have time to when I'm sweating and I only have 10 minutes to make her a sandwich in the morning," Berman said.

She admits she and her husband once stayed up all night making Pinterest-inspired sushi Rice Krispie treats for her daughter's Mermaid-themed birthday party, but the kids didn't care.

"And it was like, 'Oh, look at these! The Rice Krispie sushi treats that we made,' and the moms were like, 'Oh that's cute!' That was it," she said.

Berman says she's over the stress of impressing other moms.

"Everybody feels like they have to keep up," she said.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of "I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make The Most Of Their Time," and she says being a good mother doesn't require baking gourmet cupcakes or throwing off-the-chart birthday parties seen on Pinterest.

"Being too obsessed with being on Pinterest and doing the crafts takes you away from hanging out and enjoying your kids, then I'd say there'd be a problem with overlapping the two," she said.

If Pinterest stress is making you feel guilty, Vanderkam says stay off the site for a few weeks, focus on activities that your kids appreciate, and finally, let it go and don't feel bad about purchasing cupcakes at the store.

As for Berman, she says she may still cave into a Pinterest project to please her daughter, but it's not about the other moms.

"I think anything goes too far when it's a competition between the moms over something that's not important and cupcakes are not important in the big scheme of life," she said.

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