Wednesday, January 23, 2008

To blog or not to blog. . .

that is the question. Maybe I'm getting old, or perhaps I have so fully morphed into my role as "mommy", that I am no longer able to keep up with the latest trends. But somehow in the last couple of years this whole concept of "blogging" has become all the rage, and I've completely missed it! A few months ago a friend asked me "Did you see her blog?" in conversation and I thought to myself, "How RUDE!" I thought she was referring to some poor gal's backside:) I finally get the concept I think. A blog is a place where you can listen to yourself talk, brag about your kids, and share intimate details about your ordinary life with the whole world to your hearts content! I love it! Fellow blogger Catherine Newman said it well in her article, 'Confessions of a Mommy-Blogger' -"Blogging is narcissistic — and time-consuming. It gives strangers (not to mention the in-laws) ammunition for criticizing our parenting choices. And one day it could really mortify our kids. But we do it anyway!"

According to Newman's research for this article we moms at least, blog to stay connected with the world. Her readers made comments such as, "I read blogs to feel I'm part of something larger, a whole world of other women raising children on this crazy, spinning planet." And "Being a parent is so frustratingly difficult and blindingly beautiful at the same time. Blogs remind me to celebrate the beautiful and that I'm not alone in the difficult." Only a very few admitted to what must be a near epidemic of procrastination: "What better way to not wash my floor than to take advice from strangers on the Internet?" I am a true procrastinator by nature, and this blog gives me just one more reason to put off that load of laundry waiting to be folded!

So for now, I'm hopping on this blogging bandwagon. I'm going to share with anyone who chooses to follow along, some of the nitty gritty details of our little lives. As every mom knows there is really no such thing as "ordinary" when you have kids. You never know when they're going to re-decorate your living room with a permanent black sharpie, or bring you to tears with their innocent views of the world. Stay tuned for more stories from the Harts' not-so-ordinary life!