He's what makes me a "mommy blogger."
There was a little blurb in The Wall Street Journal a few days ago about mommy bloggers that I found interesting, particularly since I fall into that category. There are an estimated 3 million mothers out there who are blogging about mom-related things and other various topics. Wow! A little over half of those women post to their blogs at least once a week (that would be me), and 500,000 blog on a daily basis. That's a whole lot of mommy-blogging going on in the country!
I've had my blog for a little over a year now, and I really enjoy it. I like having a public outlet to express my thoughts, opinions, experiences, and pictures. It's a good way to connect with and stay in touch with friends, and it's a great way of "meeting" people from all around the country and even the world who you would never know otherwise. It's fascinating to get a glimpse into other people's lives and see what life is like for them. I've always found that interesting, and it enlarges my world-view in a fun way.
That said, blogging by its nature can be very time-consuming: there's your own blog to maintain with your postings and pictures, and there are many other blogs to read and keep up with if you choose to. I enjoy doing both of those things. My problem is the big chunk of time it all takes. How do you find the right balance between maintaining your blog, reading and keeping up with all of the blogs you follow, and oh yeah, living your own life?
For most people, life is already busy enough. I have one child and I don't work outside of the home, but I'm still always busy. The daily tasks of a stay-at-home mom are a full-time job: being an attentive mother, keeping the house clean and organized, preparing meals, running errands, driving to preschool and other activities, taking care of the pets, doing yardwork, etc. Then add to this all of the other things involved in living life:
- exercising and staying healthy, or trying to get healthy
- having a social life and going out and doing things
- reading newspapers, magazines, and books
- reading the scriptures
- working on your church calling
- watching TV shows and the news
- doing your hobbies (other than blogging)
- working on various projects around the house
- spending at least a little quality time with your husband
- keeping your career skills up (in my case, by doing freelance editing work)
- trying to get at least seven hours of sleep a night,
and the list goes on. How does blogging fit in when you want to do all of these things? I guess it somehow does if you want it to. But at least for me, it's often at the expense of other things. For example, I'd love to read for pleasure a lot more than I currently do, watch more movies that I know I'd like, learn some new skills, and spend more quality time with my husband and son. Sometimes I feel very guilty when I'm on the Internet instead of with them. Not that I need to be with them every waking moment, but there are times when my Internet habits have made me neglectful of more significant responsibilities in my life.
I like blogging way too much to give it up! I just want to figure out a way to get it to fit into my life in a more efficient, less stressful way. Because if it's stressful, why do it? Maybe restrict it to just two or three days a week? Become less of a perfectionist and don't edit and proofread everything I write as much as I do? I don't know. How do the three million mommy bloggers and other bloggers out there do it? What do you do to fit it into your life? I'm really interested in how other people who blog make it work (or don't!).
