Pinterest Contests

​There's a secret battle being waged across America, by parents of school-aged children. It's fought on holidays, such as Halloween or Christmas, and on birthdays. The weapons are cute little bows, tied decoratively around treat bags, ghosts made with edible eyeballs and marshmallows. The prize is the title of the parents who are best at Pinterest.

The planning process begins weeks in advance, scouring boards and pins for the perfect, unique treat. Then you have to go about modifying it in some way to make it look like you didn't straight-up copy it from Pinterest. Of course, in the end the children don't really care if the candy canes are arranged to look like an old-fashioned sled, they just want the candy.

The problem that I have always struggled with is that there's no real payoff for winning the prize. You sit and meticulously twist pipe cleaners into pilgrim hats, the kids throw them away, the other parents simply retreat to the war room to plan how to one-up you for the next holiday. The only clear winner I see is Pinterest, who is all too happy to provide the battlefield (and craft stores who saturate the site with ads). It's a far cry from the days when I was in school, and you'd bring a bag of lollipops to hand out to the class.