Dear Maisie

I am awful with being influenced by people's opinions of me - not necessarily the person that I am but perhaps the actions that I choose. There will always be someone who doesn't like you, that's humans and we cannot all be completely compatible but often people tend to keep those opinions to themselves. Others however find great pleasure in seeing the person they dislike suffer through their cruel thoughts.
When I began to write this blog a lot of people thought that it was my attempt not to go back to my retail job. As mentioned in earlier blog posts, I am lucky enough to work from home for my partner and I do actually do work but there will always be someone who thinks that you're trying to avoid 'real work' and instead be a stay at home parent who just sits on their arse all day. I wish I could but with a toddler and a job from home as well as cooking, cleaning and washing, I rarely do get the time to sit around in the day! To begin with it really bugged me that people thought that about me, family and friends alike but now I have gotten to the stage where I simply do not care - People can think what they like about me but only myself and my partner know the truth.
Another time I felt that people opinions became very clear was when I became a parent. When you become a parent, EVERYONE has an opinion on you, your child, your parenting, your choices...the list goes on. But you know what, don't listen to any of it - if you want to sit and cuddle your newborn all day long then do it. If you want to bottle feed instead of breastfeed, do it and ignore people's opinions. I heard all sorts when I first had Maisie and I literally didn't listen to any of it - if I had had, I'd probably have had a mental breakdown about being a shit parent.
People's opinions do not define you and they most certainly should not affect who or what you want to be. If you are happy with what you are doing, who you are with, the things you like then you should never let anyones opinions change that or you. By all means, listen to those opinions but don't let them bring you down. I often listen to people's opinions of me but instead of letting them affect me and bring me down - I use them to help me decide what kind of person that really is; if someone is telling you you shouldn't do this, and you're wrong to do that', maybe the person who needs to change isn't you, its them.
In my opinion, people's opinions are there to give us perspective on life. I know I am not perfect and I may have a joke and say I am to my partner etc but realistically, I know I am not and I think that people's opinions help us to see that nobody is perfect. They are the little pointers in life that keep us grounded. Some opinions are helpful, others are spiteful. It's important for each person to listen to the opinions people have of them and use them to your advantage - as an improvement mechanism or like I say, a way to decide which people you want around you.
Thank you for taking the time to read. I promise all of my blog posts won't be like this, I just think at times it is important to talk about things that a lot of people experience, often on a daily basis. Please follow my instagram @dear_maisie to stay up-to-date with products I'm trying out and what I'm doing day-to-day x