Overheard: Props to a mom for not blogging about her children
Categories: Playground bureau, Gadgets & tech, That's entertainment
One of my favorite reads in the San Francisco Chronicle is a tiny box called "Public
Eavesdropping." Bay Area residents send columnist Leah Garchik snippets of
outrageous, humorous or atrocious statements they've overheard in public. Today's tidbit was most amusing. Isa Polt-Jones, a mom to twins, and her friend were having lunch when the friend said:"Thank you for not blogging." I speculated that it was a reference to Isa blogging about her kids. I wanted to confirm my suspicions so I tracked Isa down and sure enough, I was right! Isa was updating her friend on the latest happenings with her twins when her child-free friend made the blogging reference, later adding she would have heard about every diaper change and everything-else-baby online.
With the proliferation of parents blogging, I hadn't realized how assumed it was that if you have a child, you likely have a blog where you divulge every last detail about your kids. We all know that's not the case, parent bloggers still tend to be in the minority.
Nonetheless, the comment made by Isa's friend made me wonder: are friends and family getting tired of family blogs?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
christy 3-23-2006 @ 4:14PM
Hey, here's a solution if you're sick of mommy blogs ... don't read them. TAH-DAH!
You know what I don't like? Sports blogs. Booooring. Stupid. Total waste of my time. You know what I do? I don't look at them. Ever. Problem solved.
I think this has more to do with many childless people's barely-under-cover resentment of people with kids than it does with the microcosm of parenting blogs.
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MelissaS 3-23-2006 @ 4:20PM
Well yes, because all parents sit their friends and family down at their computers and force you to read the most benign details of their child's life.
That's a really annoying comment. But I'm sure not so atypical.
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Kate 3-23-2006 @ 4:36PM
I started my blog specifically for my family who are mostly on the opposite coast and were calling and e-mailing every day ASKING for every last detail of my baby's life. I got tired of telling the same story 5+ times! I don't think anyone else reads my blog and I wouldn't expect them to. If a blog doesn't interest you, just don't read it.
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daisy 3-23-2006 @ 5:08PM
People seem a tad defensive here... maybe this friend was thanking her friend the mom for having a conversation with her about the kids rather than referring her to the blog.
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Caitlin 3-23-2006 @ 5:13PM
I keep one blog for my family, because it took too much time to keep both sides (both large closeknit families) updated over the phone. That's probably closer to a mommy blog than my link on here. There's not too much else there besides my life with Paul from 2005 on. My family griped when I posted non baby stuff, so I started another blog for me.
I don't consider the blog that I link to on BB to be a mommy blog. It's a personal blog. Being a mother is part of who I am now, but it's not the only thing I write about. I just find it interesting if you're a female and you write about your kid occasionally, you're automatically a mommy blogger. But if you're male and write about your kid occasionally, you're not a daddy blogger.
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charlene prince birkeland 3-23-2006 @ 5:22PM
daisy - yes, i think it had more to do with saving information for conversation as opposed to reading it first then re-hashing in person.
but i don't think it's just the folks without kids that could make this type of comment. i know plenty of people with kids and very familiar with blogs who that think the whole idea of the mom/dad/family blog is ridiculous. so i'd be hestitant to say it's about "childless people's barely-under-cover resentment of people with kids" and more to do with sheer volume of details. which of course, you don't *have* to read!
-charlene
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Ms Sisyphus 3-23-2006 @ 6:12PM
I think it might have something to do with the use of the word "blog" as a verb. Thank you for not blogging it could just mean thanks for keeping your story brief and to the point. Thanks for not filling me in on minutiae, and thanks for not navelgazing.
That could be seen as a firebomb sort of statement, but let's be honest, interesting and entertaining as bloggers try to be, we *do* focus on what interests *us*. And that's not always a good recipe for lunch with a friend.
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Missy 3-23-2006 @ 6:25PM
None of my friends or family, save for my husband, knows I have a blog. That's insurance for when I decide to rail on someone and would otherwise not like to think twice about who I'm offending.
Then again, I kept a journal for years and years and a blog was just an updated, albeit voyeuristic, approach to that.
I do have a different full website on which my family and friends are able to see pictures of our son.
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christy 3-23-2006 @ 6:45PM
I didn't even consider it to mean thanks for not going and blogging this encounter or thanks for telling me about it in person instead of blogging. I guess I was being so defensive, but there is so much mommy-blog bashing out there that my trigger finger is itchy. Even reading back, I could still see it both ways.
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Anna V. 3-23-2006 @ 7:43PM
I don't mind sharing the stories about our kids over the phone with my mom/in-laws. It's not like I have a billion people to call. I spend all day with my kids, so I don't even think they've been mentioned in my blog (there's so much more to me than my kids). I don't think the comment was a slam on bloggers... I think it was more along the lines of 'thanks for the human conversation.'
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Becca 3-23-2006 @ 8:59PM
The Mommy Bloggers I read, I read BECAUSE I want to hear about the kids. I'd love to get daily updates on how my Grandson is doing, or how my niece and her little boy are. My blog is kind of like a conversation I'd have with my family and friends, there are updates on how my three year old is doing, updates on what I'm doing, the progress I'm making on whatever art project I'm doing, whatever interests me today. As far as I know there are only a few people who read my blog, close friends and a couple of family members.
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Laura Snow 3-24-2006 @ 2:41AM
I blog for me and my husband and son... for OUR memories. I started our blog to share with friends and family as I love in an entirely different country than most of them, but in the end I even lost some of the family readers. In a fight with my brother's wife her 'comeback' was that I tell the world stupid things like I'm worried about my son's language development. Yeah, torch me! I have to just say, if you don't like it, don't read it. No one is forcing you to.
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ann adams 3-24-2006 @ 11:15AM
My younger son reads the blog. Once we arranged lunch together through the comment boxes. That's a little extreme.
My blog would probably bore some people to tears and that's fine with me. I talk a lot about the girls and their issues. (I probably bore some people to tears here as well - also okay).
It's fun to do. I look forward to my email each morning to see who has been visiting and what they have said. I have no idea what category I'm in and I don't really care.
I think the pigeonholing is silly.
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