Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

Oh my! Where has the time gone in the 2 1/2 months since we attended BlogHer12 in NYC? We are hopeful that you will join us in , where Jaqueline and I were at the "Mom, Stop Blogging About Me" workshop. Panelists Mary McCarthy, Stephanie Mullen and Tanis Miller introduced their experiences of unpredicted circumstances related to their blogs about their children to a small audience of mommy and daddy bloggers on Friday morning. After some entertaining and some heart wrenching stories about the fall out from posting information about themselves or about their children, questions were taken from the audience. We had the chance to talk with some moms afterwards about how they make the decisions of what and when to post about themselves and their children.

Hi F! What surprised me most about BlogHer 2012? Not beautiful, crowded hot summertime New York. I realized that a big blogging conference was made enjoyable for me because I went with a friend or companion– hey, that's a compliment to you! But here’s the critical observation: There was not enough content or programming, I don't think. Did we miss something? There were the halls, and we saw several interactive presentations. But I think they needed more workshops and presentations. What do you think? OR what surprised you most about BlogHer as an event? J

What if somehow I find out my favourite mommy blogger has no children. She writes about Heather and David in all sorts of scrapes and escapes. And then, I find out that no such kids (issue of pseudonyms aside) exist. BUT, you might say, if that were the case–if a mommy blogger were "posing" as a mommy–you’d just never find out.[ I might use the term "lying" here, but I think it’s too strong? There may be echoes of the James Frey debacle at work – where he claimed to be an addict and criminal, but turned out to be mostly a writer! One of the features of cyberspace is that we are not likely to get the opportunity to match pixels to pictures. Liars can just go on lying, unless... When I read a blog about momming, I often wonder who the writer is–what does she like, look like, where does she live? I recently read a scholarly discussion about how the internet and virtual reality really promote this sort of thinking and wondering. All you know about me are these let