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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

To blog or not to blog

I blog because...

- I need a place to be me without fear of judgement.
- I want to connect to other moms.
- I sometimes want to share my private feelings with people who don't know me.
- I want to talk about my son.

My blog is not known to my husband, family, or close friends. There are, however, a few real life friends who do read my blog. I know of a few, and there may be more. I trust that what they learn here will be kept private. It's like carrying on a private conversation with someone, you respect their privacy. Anyway, I'm not concerned about that. (But I'm not confident enough to tell my family and close friends about it.)

Sometimes I'm here to be funny. Sometimes I have to be serious. Other times I just feel like writing. And most often I just want to get my feelings out. Do I hold back? Of course I do. I'm not sure I'll ever be a good enough writer to put it all out there. Or maybe it's that I'm not that kind of writer.

Some days it's as much fun for me to read other people's blogs as it is to write my own. But here is where I feel comfortable. I feel like I belong.

That's why I blog. How about you? Leave a comment or make it a post yourself. What is your blog to you?

11 comments:

mamashine said...

I go back and forth with this. I started blogging as a way to keep family and friends in the loop, never realizing that I might meet new people or become friends with many strangers. So that's been an added bonus. Everybody close to me knows I blog though, so I have to be a little careful about spilling my guts too candidly. There are times I'd like to vent and I don't feel that I have the freedom. Plus I usually feel better after I get it out of my system and then I don't want a public written record of it.

I didn't expect my blog to turn into a place where I wanted to feel popular, and sometimes it has done that. I feel sad if I don't get comments. And that annoys me. I'd like to just write without feeling like I HAVE to have feedback.

And yes, I enjoy reading other blogs almost as much as keeping up with my own.

I don't think there's anywhere I can go without fear of judgement though, especially on the internet. :) You never know when what you say is going to hit somebody the wrong way.

Anonymous said...

Ditto everything Kelli in the Mirror said. My family and friends read my blog (even though they don't comment - they e-mail or call me instead - I hate that!) so I have to be really careful about what I say. I feel a bit stifled sometimes, but I figure I can vent in my comments on others' blogs, right?

Plus, I love blogging (and reading other mom blogs) just so I don't feel so isolated. I have friends in real life, but there's just something about reading about other moms' experiences that makes me feel like I'm not alone. My mom once told me that motherhood is the loneliest job in the world; she was so right. But blogging helps, I think.

KatieBug said...

I started blogging because Kelli in the Mirror made me. :) I continue to blog for the same reasons she blogs and to keep in touch with out of town family and because I have a terrible memory and don't keep much in the way of baby books for my kids. So I try to post about the cute things they do and post lots of pictures so that I have something to look back on if I don't ever get around to doing the baby book thing.

Shannon said...

I started to blog to share D's story and to provide support/information/real life story about cerebral palsy. Now it is just a mish mash of stuff. It works though. At first my husband didn't know but he found out and he was beyond pissed that I didn't share with him. He got over it of course.

Kelsey said...

I started a blog to keep our distant family and friends in the loop. I also wanted a place to stretch my writing muscle, small as it may be. It has become something I do for myself. I was a blog reader before I became a blog writer; it was the first "community" I felt I belonged to as a new mom. It took me quite some time to get up the nerve to do it myself. Which I find funny now, remembering how nervous I was about starting it.

I am occasionally competitive about it; and I don't like that part. Because I think I am truly doing it for myself, whether I get any readers/comments or not. I like the idea that someday, Harper will be able to go back and get an honest account of what she was like as a child. Though I worry she may not like it so much.

Once in a while I wish I had done the whole anonymous blogging thing because my husband and family read, so I do censor myself quite a bit. But I think the joy of sharing Harper's life outweighs the spilling the thoughts that I have to contain to my pen and ink journals.

2Forgetful said...

Substitute son for daughters and you've got my reasons for blogging. I used to have a non-anonymous blog but I found my SIL's IP address kept popping up which made me edit a lot of my thoughts. So I switched to being anonymous and it's made blogging a lot more enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

I blog as a way to keep family in the loop and as a way to connect with other moms. I'm pretty isolated IRL, so blogging lets me have interactions that I normally wouldn't. Plus, I LOVE to tell stories, and there's only so many times my husband can hear one without going insane!

Sara said...

yeah, what you said!! and all the other gals too!

Nowheymama said...

My in-laws recently came across my blog. While there's nothing up that I'd mind them reading, it was weird.

I like all of the reasons listed so far, plus I like to write about food allergy issues.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I wish I hadn't told my family about my blog - then I could bitch about them more. When I first started they were my only readers, though, so it would have been a very lonely little blog. At least my in-laws still don't know about it.

Nikki said...

I just found your blog through a comment you left on Andria's (boymom.blogspot.com). I blog as a virtual scrapbook because, like someone else said, I'm not too good at the baby book thing - especially now that there are two! Unfortunately my family and friends are pretty much my only readers so my blog emulates my life to some extent...it's full of happy pictures and stories that I show the world but I wish I could share deeper stuff and never do for fear of what people will think of me. Sigh...well, that was depressing :) LOL