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Pinterests high expectations are stressing moms out
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Intricate childrens birthday cakes, perfect manicures and time-consuming meals abound on Pinterest, and moms are eating up the complicated crafts. - photo by Shelby Slade
Intricate childrens birthday cakes, perfect manicures and time-consuming meals abound on Pinterest, and moms are eating up the complicated crafts.

NBC's "Today" conducted a survey which showed 42 percent of the 7,000 moms "Today" surveyed said they get Pinterest stress, or feel anxiety about throwing the perfect parties, creating cute crafts and getting all the details of their lives seemingly flawless to showcase on social media.

Pinterest, a site that allows users to post and share images, ideas, funny stories and quotes, has been around since March of 2010. While it is used for many reasons, people often find craft ideas on the site.

These crafts or recipes are often harder to reproduce than one would expect, but the great ideas plague moms who are trying to engage children and be the best parents possible.

Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote for The New York Post that Pinterest and social media seem to be adding an extra line to a mother's already long to-do list.

Online, these moms see birthday cupcakes that look like nail-polish bottles or fruit snacks with mustaches, she wrote. They see meals that have taken days of forethought and hours of preparation. They get the idea that being handy with construction paper is part of a mothers job description now.

Scott Dannemiller, whose wife spent hours decorating fruit cups with graduation caps to give to their daughters first grade classmates, suggests going back to the root of good parenting, which focuses on happy children rather than perfect crafts that children dont notice.

I remember when crackers used to be enough. You probably do, too. Can we get back to that place, please? Deep down, we know we're not doing it for the kids, Dannemiller wrote for The Huffington Post. They couldn't care less. My daughter didn't even notice the adornments. But she did appreciate the snacks.

This frustration with Pinterest has led some people to create sites highlighting the impossibility of pulling off certain pins and crafts that are popular on the site.

These blogs, like Pinterest Fail, Pinstrosity and My Imaginary Well-Dressed Daughter Quinoa, work to point out that not every craft project works out and that it shouldnt be such a stress for people.

I can spend hours browsing Pinterest, and the content convinces me that anyone can embark on any DIY project with fabulous results, Jenna Cole wrote on her site Pinterest Fail. Perfection hasnt been my experience, and Im guessing failure has happened to some of you as well.

As I poured over oodles of pins one night, feeling slightly inadequate, I started to realize that, while I may think of myself as Martha Stewart on occasion, my kids dont want or need her. They just want me to be their mom, Dina Fleno wrote for CT Working Moms.