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Editor’s (long freaking) note: I’ve got two sisters and a brother. They all make me extremely proud and happy: my brother is headed with his wife to Florida State to study statistics on a full scholarship (statistics, really? I know. The crazy guy loves it!), one is a mother-of-two, Army Reserves Sergeant who is currently (wo)maning her work, family, and home single-handedly while her husband is in Iraq, and the third is also a mother-of-two and a Sergeant of a sort – the mommy kind. She raises her own kids, other people’s kids through childcare – she even birthed another parents’ child through surrogacy. (Remember the story I wrote about her in our very first issue of Inspire(d) almost two years ago?) A woman who has this much interaction with children has got to have more than a few things to say. Within the last year, she’s found a way to say them. She’s started blogging. And she’s good at it. And funny. Visit her blog at: antisupermom.com.
Social media are taking their stance in journalism, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere any time soon. So in honor of the launch of our newly designed website and my own future blog (yep, I’m joining the masses – check it out on our blog page), I contacted my enthusiastic, bloggy sister, Beth. I asked her to explain the blogging world to those who might not be too familiar (hi mom and dad), and to introduce herself and her blog to those who are. And apparently I told her she could write up to 2000 words (which really is a lot). I don’t remember this number, but she certainly did.
Posted by Anti Supermom (re: by Beth Knudsvig)
Aryn asked me to write something about being a blogger (and fellow bloggers, before you get your undies in a bunch over having more readers on your blog than mine: I know. I am not the authority on all things blog-related. I am not an expert at blogging – although I do consider myself an expert at one thing, the one-handed diaper change – but it’s simple: she’s my sister. I have an ‘in’ and her name is Aryn. Un-bunched yet?).
She asked me to keep it under 2000 words. (Turns out 2000 words is a lot for me, so don’t skip over this, I promise to keep it interesting. Okay semi-interesting. Forget it, I’m not making any promises I can’t keep.) (Plus, I’m a horrible typer. 2000 words would take me forever. In high school typing class, before it was called “keyboarding,” us students were considered lucky if we got one of the typewriters that you got to plug in so you could listen to the pleasant typewriter hum instead of the teacher commanding “semi-colon, period, semi-colon, period…”. Those days rocked!)
But I digress. She also told me that she couldn’t pay me to write (to this I said: forget it). Then I remembered that she’s my sister. She’d probably give me a kidney or at least let me borrow a pair of shoes. So I agreed.
So here I am, standing proudly (actually I’m sitting, but whatever), to admit that I’m a blogger, even worse, I’m one of those cliché Mommy Bloggers.
And here’s a promise I can keep: if you don’t have a blog already, you should. It will change your life.
I blog like it’s my online diary, but it’s so much more than any childhood diary could be (cue the image of me, wearing pigtails, writing in my pink, padlocked little book). See, I stay home with my two boys and blogging provides for me a feeling like I have peers, co-workers standing beside me at this virtual water-cooler as I laugh, cry, scream through blogging about my own personal little bosses, my children. It’s like that ‘once career’ outside my home, where I was putting something out there, some written ‘project’ that would be judged, criticized, accepted or rejected, find success in or feel failure.
And boy, do I feel accepted. I’ve met some of the greatest moms out there (and I use the term ‘met’ as in never having face-to-face connection, funny huh?). I’ve laughed with Amanda, a first-time mom, about her daughter coined ‘Beans’ and all the life changes that come to this teacher-turned-stay-at-home-mom. I’ve cheered on Lisa with her four children whom she home-schools and cooks organic meals for and am amazed that she manages to still be up at 4:30 am for workout Boot Camp. I cried when I learned Emilie had passed away from cancer leaving behind her two little boys, the littlest one being the reason she found her cancer in the first place. To these women (and the occasional man) I am the Anti Supermom. Why? Because being a supermom to me means doing everything – working, mothering, cooking, cleaning, loving – and doing it all just right. But I don’t think that’s real and I have no desire to try to make it a reality. And I know that if I worried about all those things being perfect, I would miss out on the things that absolutely are. I blog about those moments, the perfect ones. And my blogging friends get it.
The point is I know some of my blogging friends better than I know some of my friends in real life (in blog-land we say IRL – “in real life.”). It doesn’t matter that we may never meet IRL.
Are we at 2000 words yet?
So…have I lost some of the generation ‘W’ – as in older than generation ‘X’ – out there? Are you saying “blog?” What’s that? Then let me start at the beginning.
What is a blog? (No, it’s not some new word for constipation, ‘Man, I’m feeling blogged down today!’ Nope, but it’s fun to pretend.) A blog is a website where an individual (or sometimes an organization or business) can write, video, photograph, sketch thoughts, ideas, information, and more to be shared in a public forum. The individual controlling the blog can post about anything they want – I personally choose to blog about my life and family – and then pretty much anyone out there can go to the blog, read/see what’s there, and even make comments.
Yes, blogging is the best form of voyeurism out there. (It’s the new reality television, umm screen time.) Want to know what irks me about my children this week? Read my blog. Want to see pictures of my son wearing his pants backwards? Read my blog. Sharing a blog allows people to keep in touch with you and your family. It’s the easiest way I’ve found to do so (and I’m lazy, I look for the easiest-anything). I’m also cheap so if you’re thinking there’s a subscription cost for something oh-so-wonderful, no. It’s free.
Surely we’re at 2000 words by now.
I’m not saying blogging will be great for everyone. Maybe you’ll hate it. But at least now you know a little about an Anti Supermom and her creative outlet. For me it’s more fun than television, it’s juicier than tabloids, it’s more useful than email. It’s real. IRL.
Beth likes long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners… who are we kidding? She’s a wife, a mother, a childcare provider and volunteer; her sanity holds on by a thread daily. Visit her at www.antisupermom.com to feed her ego.
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