This is the terrifying reason why mums need to curb their Pinterest addiction

I am currently knee-deep in planning a birthday party. Back in the day, this would have involved some plastic cups and plates, a chocolate cake and a candle shaped like the number '4' – or, more likely, even – just four of those super-basic birthday cake candles from the baking aisle at Dunnes. Job done. Now, however, throwing a kids' party required pretty much the same level of planning, details – and budget – as you average wedding. There has to be a theme, of course (other than 'birthday,' obvs.) Once this has been carefully chosen, you then have to turn your attention to the details – plural. Decor, food, entertainment, gift bags; you name it, a children's party circa 2017 has it. Celebrating anything these days has turned into a competition in who can do it better and get the social media snaps to prove it. Much, of course, thanks to social media. I mean; admit it, mamas: How many hours of your life have you spent scrolling through beautiful board after beautiful board on Pinterest only to feel utterly inadequate, instead of inspired, by all the perfectly curated images of creative endeavours and domestic harmony? Guilty, guilty, guilty. And we are not alone. In a survey of 7,000 US mothers by Today.com, a whopping 42 percent said that they sometimes suffer from Pinterest stress – the worry that they’re not crafty or creative enough. Symptoms, according to the research, including staying up until 3 a.m. clicking through photos of exquisite hand-made birthday party favours even though you’ll end up buying yours at Dealz, or sobbing quietly into a burnt mess of expensive ingredients that were supposed to be adorable unicorn cookies. Sounds familiar? You too might be suffering from 'Pinterest stress.' “It tricks you into thinking that everyone is baking their own bread,” Jenna Andersen, California mum-of-two, photographer and blogger behind the hilarious site Pinterest Fail explained. She’s still a fan of the site, but she’s learned not to let herself think that the artfully curated photos represent anyone’s reality. “Pinterest is largely a site of unrealized dreams.” Andersen even admits she’s heard other mums say self-deprecating things like, “It was just a little party, nothing I’d put on Pinterest” -- as if simply throwing an enjoyable kids’ party isn’t enough anymore. “We have a hard time enjoying our own experiences because we feel it’s not worthy of this invisible judge,” Andersen said. “It’s so easy to get depressed. You start to feel like your entire life has to be like a magazine all the time.” Blogger, author and mum-of-three, Glennon Doyle Melton, agrees. "Stop the Pinsanity. Being a parent is so physically and emotionally and mentally exhausting. To add 17 layers of perfection and cutesiness? I don’t know of any study that ever said kids turn out better if they have rainbow coloured birthday cakes. Why are we doing this to ourselves?” Is it time to wean ourselves off Pinterest? The signs are pointing to it, we are sorry to say. “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 don’t want or need her, US mum Dena Fleno wrote in a post called “Making Peace with Pinterest” on the website CT Working Moms. “I decided to let myself off the hook - to allow myself to not succumb to one more pressure to be perfect.”