I recently noticed something going on in my head recently. Then it was brought up in a sermon in church, which really got me thinking hard.
I am a SAHM. Relying on only one income means giving up quite a few luxuries that you didn't realize you we're giving up. Scaled down vacations, less leisure shopping, more budgeting and meal planning, more time driving the older, reliable car instead of buying a new one every four years. Things like that.
Now, this also means I have a little bit more time to check and post cute kid photos to Facebook and see what everyone else is doing. This is where the downside comes in.
I see friends posting pictures of new cars, fabulous vacations, weekend getaways, frequent shopping trips, and weekend benders @ numerous restaurants & bars. 'How can they afford all this stuff?' I wonder. We make a comfortable living; enough to pay our bills, buy food & gas and give to our church. But we have to save for weeks in order to go clothes shopping for the kids, and forget eating out three times a week! If we get to go to McDonalds once a month, it's considered a splurge!
So, it occurred to me that I am envious of my friends who have all this disposable income! It also occurred to me that I am comparing myself to other people who are not even close to being in the same situation as me. Some people have older children and don't have to worry about daycare. Others don't have children at all! Some have fabulous jobs who get to travel the US on a weekly basis, and others have no choice but to pay for daycare because they need the second income in order to survive.
I am doing three things wrong by being envious of the movers & shakers I see posting on Facebook. #1 is comparing me to them. You should never compare your life to someone else's because no two lives can be compared evenly. #2 You should never believe someone's life is as fabulous as what it seems on Facebook. We always post the fabulous and leave out the bad and the boring. Who wants to post that they lost an account at work, or that they went to the store and looked longingly at a $30 blouse they couldn't buy? #3, maybe I shouldn't check Facebook 14 times a day.
