Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

In “Open Letter to New Mom Bloggers: The 9 Reasons Why You’re Failing” author Candis Lynn Hidalgo gauges the number of mom bloggers in North America at 4 million and goes on to offer advice to those who may be struggling to get their voice heard and their blog monetized within this massive crowd (although I suspect this number may refer to moms blogging in general rather than solely parenting focused blogs). Mommy blogging has become so popular that there are now entire blogs, articles, online courses and even books devoted to how to be successful at it and what steps to take when getting started. I thought I would scour the internet and see what kind of advice people are giving to prospective mommy bloggers and how (or if) they address issues of privacy and ethical sharing practices.             Focusing on freely accessible online articles and posts, the guides I found concentrated overwhelmingly on the business side o...

The mommy blog I took a look at this week is quite different from the corporate CafeMom and the personal Her Bad Mother we’ve previously discussed. Positive-parents.org is something I first discovered through a Facebook friend several months ago. Along with the blog and associated Facebook page , author Rebecca Eanes has published a few books all surrounding the topic of “positive parenting”. Due to this focus, the content on Positive Parents is primarily formatted in an informational and instructional manner. Her Media Kit states that the blog gets 65,000 average views monthly. I wanted to see how Eanes engages her readers without the draw of multiple interactive mediums and a mass user base like that of CafeMom or the entertaining personal anecdotes and sharing of intimate information like that found on HerBadMother.             The Positive Parents site has a disclaimer page explaining their privacy policy and use ...

I waded through Her Bad Mother’s post archives this week and ethical grey areas aside, blogger Catherine Connors' ability to draw interest in her life as a mother stems mainly from her willingness to share detailed personal experiences (her own and others –which is where the issue lies). If reality TV show ratings are any indication, people are captivated by getting a “real” divulging peek into how others live. At times she addresses the risks in oversharing only to then dismiss them. Based on several telling moments within her posts over the years, my take on Connors is that she sees her ability as a story teller to be of such value to her audience that it is worth any potential slight to her children’s privacy or right to mediate their own public image independently. Let me point out a few of these moments so that you can come to your own conclusions about what Connors intentions may be and how you feel about her actions. With regards to her daughter she writes ...