I don’t write here as much as I used to.
This is partly because I have lots of other writing projects. Partly because I have been finishing my Grad Dip.
But mostly because I feel like most of what I have to say,
is already being said.
There were a few lucky bloggers who started their blogs back
when the rest of us were still using smoke signals and morse code to
communicate. By the time the rest of us caught on, there were over 152,000,000
blogs in the world. To put that in content, that is approximately how many
pieces of Lego Friends we suck up the vacuum cleaner each week. Especially those
tiny little purple bows and brushes. They shit me.
152 million blogs.
Of course, five of those are mine. One I gave up on a long
time ago, and one I will never admit is mine (yay, internet anonymity).
But how are we meant to be heard amongst so many voices?
I started From Mum to Me primarily as a record of my
children’s early lives – a way to capture forever all their little quirks, and
all my major mistakes. What I wrote about was ridiculously important to me, but
also completely recognisable to everyone else. For the most part, parenting
blogs such as this, are universal stories told with different names. And we
share and read them, precisely because we can see our own experiences in
someone else’s words and think ‘thank god, I thought I was the only one who did
that.’
You are not alone.
If we could sum up the messages of 99.9% of all the ‘mummy’
blogs and ‘mommy blogs’ and ‘parenting blogs’ in only four words – that message
would be YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
It’s a pretty powerful message, even when wrapped up in
stinky nappies and glitter glue.
Because even though I started the blog for me, I kept
writing for you, because of those wonderful comments and emails I get every now
and then, the likes on Facebook, the private messages – the ones that say ‘thank
you for making me understand I am not alone in this.’
That has been very powerful for me.
I am under no illusion that what I write is Pulitzer worthy
or compellingly unique. Usually, it’s full of speling mistakes.
But while I am lazily inactive here on the blog, I do still
share and post things on my Facebook account. Mostly because it’s a lot easier
than thinking up funny topics and then finding the time to sit down and
actually write about them.
I find it fascinating to see what really makes people jump –
the things that people get excited about. I should point out that it’s never
anything that I actually write. Sniff. But that’s ok, I’ve dealt with that.
The memes and links that generate the most activity is like
a spotlight, pointing out the major issues that affect us all. Because we (Relentless
readers) are a rather homogenous group. Roughly a third from the States, a
third from Australia and the rest from across the globe like the UK, NZ and
Canada. Hi everyone.
And while we are not all women (hi guys) and not all my
readers are actually mums, when something spikes I can see the issues we think
about. The clever meme people may have made us laugh, but they also manage to capture
our concerns.
The most recent thing I posted up on Facebook was a great
quote from Jennifer Garner about the fact that she has a baby bump despite not
being pregnant. She totally owned it, and everyone seemed to love it.
I recently published a book 'The Brutal Truth About the
Third Child' (available on Amazon here). Yeah, I actually just did that. Anyway,
in the book I wrote a completely new piece called ‘What does your body really look
like after three babies?’. It was quite confronting, which is probably why I
never put it up on the blog.
But, like Jennifer, I like to think that my scars and wobbly
bits are just a badge of honour of being a mum. I’d rather have them, than not,
and I think a lot of you feel the same way too.
But if someone as lovely as Jennifer Garner is writing it,
then I don’t need to, which is why I am sometimes very silent over here.
But you don’t need to be. Please keep those messages coming.
