“Happy fall, y’all” is quickly becoming loud for all to hear. This is the time of year where schools are back in session, the weather begins to shift, and stores become a portrait of fall themes to create in your home. Families begin booking photo sessions to highlight the change of the season and social media posts on all the fun fall activities will be shared and posted time and again.
Although the fall feels can be an exciting shift of season, it can, at times, create expectations to measure up to comparison of how others are enjoying all the things.
There are some of you who are stepping into this time looking at “that Pinterest mom who makes all the things look a magazine cover,” and you are feeling like what you provide is not enough.
There are some of you who are working tirelessly to provide financially for your family and as you see families post one fun activity shared after the next, you are left feeling like you have no quality time to give to those moments.
As I think of the social media highlights, there are some of you who are battling things none of us even know about and you are left feeling unseen, unknown, and without support.
You can be feeling all these things of comparison, of margin shifts, of struggles and yet still experience fall feels in the way that you see fit for your family.
Because I am a family photographer, I am stepping into my busiest time of the year where weekend spaces for all the fall things feels harder to create and manage. In awareness of myself in this season, I found that to minimize my FOMO (fear of missing out), I carve out one day for a family fall bucket list day!
Instead of stretching out all the fall things throughout the season, I mark on our calendar one fall day for our family to do all the things:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks are all fall-inspired.
- We pick the family activity we have been wanting to do, such as visiting a pumpkin patch or apple picking, and choose a location that gives us all the activities in a day.
This gives me a space to experience the fall feels in a more manageable way during this season and not get caught in a comparison trap as doing it all is not on the table for this season.
Here is the thing my friends: YOU SET YOUR PACE. You create what’s important to YOU. Resist letting social media posts set a tone of atmosphere for what you are able to do within your family’s season. You can celebrate the posts of others without feeling like you need to run a race of activity after activity just to measure up to someone else’s choices for their family.
If you are in a season where the time feels stretched, guilt has no time in that arena. Choose your fall feels with intention and give yourself the grace to do it differently!
