Oh, what a nice bag of expensive stuff!

Ugh.

I saw THIS link today on Perezhilton.  This sort of post is the reason why I look at sites like these.  My favorite posts are of celebrities buying groceries.  Its totally a guilty pleasure, but I love how you can spot the authentic people really fast when you see what they buy.  I saw a picture of Kim Kardashian buying about 700 bottles of Gatoraid.  She needed two carts.  Then I saw Jessica Alba looking at some iffy green beans to see if she was going to buy them.  Posts where you see an intimate part of someones life really shows you that we all have very basic needs.  We've all got to grocery shop.  Seeing people who are real and true to themselves makes the divide a lot less great. 

I like Jessica Alba.  It isn't like she is an annoying, obnoxious, skinny, mouthy celebrity who has an opinion on everything and tries to be smart (I'm talking about you, Megan Fox!).  I don't know her, obviously, but this post just made me sigh.  

I am not here to judge her, because in all honestly I don't even know what is in that bag.  It looks like there is food in there to me!  What really gets me is the comment below it.  'Now that's a good mom!'.  WHAT?

How does it make you a good mom to bring a large amount of toys to an office so your kids wont be bored?  When I saw this I thought about what my dad always says about having only a couple of toys when he was little.  Kids do not need 500 toys to be happy.  In my experience, if I were a small child going to my mother's office, I would much rather mimic what my mother was doing.  A few pieces of paper and a random object to use as a phone would suffice.  

It is so frustrating how everywhere you look you're told that things = happiness, things = love and things = good parenting.  Its all bullshit!  I bet her kids would rather go to a park or take a walk over playing with a bag of toys ANY DAY!   How can you possibly label a person as a good parent based on a bag of expensive shit?  We don't know, she could beat her children at home.  I obviously don't think this is the case, but expensive crap doesn't = good parenting and I wish more people would use more care when throwing statements like this out. 

I am far enough along in this process to be frightened by that bag of stuff, but just months ago I would have definitely felt inferior and like I wasn't giving my children all that they needed.  Even if only subconsciously.  That crap would still be in my head.  Now I can spot it and call bullshit.

Spending time with your children, telling them you love them, hugging them, letting them ruin a pair of pants out in mud puddles...'now that's a good mom!'.