I’m a mommyblogger and I’m dang proud of it!

There's been some "negative press attention" regarding moms who blog. It's almost like they're trying to make MommyBlogger a bad word. 

This always happens when women find and use their voices. Someone always swoops in to reprimand or slap them on the wrist. Or to mock, condescend. Zip it, little lady.

It's like when someone suddenly started calling high-waisted jeans "MomJeans" and suddenly there was this collective ewwwww. Like Mom-Jeans were the epitome of unsexy. Uncool. Like if you wore Mom-Jeans and sprayed your bangs with AquaNet you were so 2000-late.

Spare me. 

If a woman wants to wear Mom-Jeans, more power to her. If she wants to write about cooking or homeschooling or share pictures of her kiddos, MORE POWER TO HER.

If a woman at the end of her long day derives a special joy from publishing a post about her gratitude list or how she burned the crockpot dinner but at least the dog enjoyed it, MORE POWER TO HER.

I'm so sick of critics who want to muzzle women's freedom of expression. As if the only form of acceptable speech is the kind that rivals an academic thesis or a scientific journal. Or if a woman starts making money off her writing, she needs to be smacked down a peg or two. 

I'm proud of the women who can make a full-time living off their blogs. I'm proud of the stay-at-home-mommies who write and see their articles published in print media. MORE POWER TO THEM.

But who says you have to be a published writer with a thriving freelance career in order to be taken seriously? The answer is: you don't.

Some of my most favorite blogs are the tiny, undiscovered ones. These sweet women who openly and happily share pictures of their farm or backyard, swap recipes or talk about potty-training ideas. I love these gals.

And frankly, I'm a little protective of them. I would be so sad if they stopped publishing stuff because they felt intimidated by some lame-ass writer who felt all empowered because she picked on the littler writers on the playground and got everyone to laugh with her in that sort of self-congratulatory, patronizing tone.

Please. Blogging is not a competitive sport. It's self expression. It's art.

And anytime anyone tries to squelch freedom of expression, things tend to backfire. My suggestion? Quit.

We're Mommy-Bloggers. We're dang proud of it.

And we're not going anywhere.

[for more inspiration--and a prettier analogy--go read Heather of the EO's similar musings (she gave me courage to post my own thoughts)]

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  • http://extraordinary-ordinary.com Heather of the EO

    Um. I’m kinda totally freaked out right now. We wrote the same post. At the same time. Weird.

    Seriously. Did you see my post? (not an accusation at all, just a HUH?) It’s like we put our heads together and then typed our merry way with mommyblogger pride. Hilarious.

  • http://www.emergingmummy.com Sarah@EmergingMummy

    *standing ovation*

    Bravo, friend! Way to go! Someone needs to publish this. It’s inherently sexist to assume that the interests of women – varied as they are – are somehow less than “real” topics. You articulated my thoughts so well. I’ll be linking this up in next weekends “round up” on my blog but just wanted to let you know THAT ROCKED!!!!!

  • http://www.thisrestlessheart.com/ Kelly Langner Sauer

    lol – I love this! one of the most encouraging things I’ve read in a while! bravo!

  • http://www.candacemercyisnew.blogspot.com Candace

    Preach it, sista!! Love it!!

    –from just another mommy blogger is is also dang proud of it. :)

  • http://thekeytothedoor.blogspot.com Meredith

    Hooray for you! Yes, if for no other reason than to be creative and awaken sleeping minds, our blogs are a good thing. But more than that, we are a collective encouraging one another as we press on in our important roles of wife and mother. Thanks for speaking up.

    And so glad to hear your good news last post. And praying for you as you seek to emerge from the last few years and recover from the exhaustion.

  • http://quiveringdaughters.blogspot.com Hillary

    Do you know how much I WISH I was a mommy blogger!!??!!

  • http://www.sustainablemommy.wordpress.com Naomi

    Awesome! A few weeks ago in a feminist theory class we were talking about the way women’s work/identity is demeaned by traditional, mainstream sources. Like a story on msn.com that described the fashion life cycle, concluding that as soon as you saw a soccer mom wearing a particular style, it was OVER. It’s a lose-lose situation for women where you’re a b!tch if you succeed in the workplace and pathetic if you’re a homemaker.

    Keep writing!

  • http://www.updatemystatus.blogspot.com Mama Bean

    Hooray! And Huzzah! This was a lovely, encouraging post. Reading and writing in the momblogosphere has helped me feel way less alone in this new motherhood role. I can’t imagine it any other way!!

  • http://thinkinggrounds.blogspot.com Christian H

    I’ve given this some thought. I admit I find some of the stylistic elements of certain MommyBlogs annoying; I’m thinking automatically playing music, copious pictures of flowers, lots of bright colours, and so much sidebar clutter that the scrollbar tab is microscopic. I may also find them boring more often than not. This all being said, I greatly respect what they are doing, and wouldn’t demean the movement itself intentionally. Furthermore, I recognise that I’m not the intended audience of MommyBlogs, so why should I expect to like them or find them interesting? (Unless they have lots of theology or book reviews, and then I get all excited.)

    What I love about blogging is that so many voices can be heard–people with dissociative identity disorder, people with autism, anyone with an Internet connection. If this means I don’t understand or like all of it, I’m more than willing to accept those (minor, irrelevant) consequences.

  • http://www.laundryandlullabiesblogspot.com Emily

    I like those tiny, undiscovered blogs too. They really do contain some of the best! Of course, I might be slightly biased since I also write one of the tiny, undiscovered blogs. :)

  • http://ginagsmith.com gina

    nicely written! (also, i feel like snappin’ my fingers and waggin’ my head around just a little…)

  • http://www.constantrecourse.com jessica mell

    Yeah!
    I don’t know what negativity prompted your response, but. Rawr!

  • http://www.elizabethesther.com Elizabeth Esther

    Christian H: one of the ways I knew I wasn’t writing a strictly “mommyblog” was when male readers started showing up. lol. the funny thing is that a lot of the guys who read here think they are my only male reader. MEN: YOU MIGHT BE OUTNUMBERED BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE, HERE! lol.

    Some further thoughts: and anyway, what *is* a mommyblog? a mom who blogs? a blogger who happens to be a mom? i’m annoyed, like sarah, at the inherent sexism in some of the negative media attention. women are not all the same. as for me and my blog, i write about what amuses me. i don’t write for an “intended audience” anymore. i just write what i feel.

    any other thoughts, peep?

  • http://heart-and-home.net Ashleigh (Heart and Home)

    WOOHOO! Go you!

    I’m with everything you and Heather and Sarah said…

  • http://steppinheavenward.blogspot.com/ Renee

    Wow, GREAT post!

    (Deep thought I know. Sorry tired Mommy to 12 blogger and it’s the best I can type. In my head I am saying highly intellectual things. It’s just not translating.

  • http://sweetwildmeadow.blogspot.com/ Joanie

    Amen to finding our voices and getting to publish our thoughts! Amen to you, EE!

  • http://prayingthroughchaos.blogspot.com Cassidy

    Great post. If I wasn’t falling asleep at the keyboard I would write something more thoughtful.

  • http://sevenlittleaustralians.blogspot.com Erin

    You go girl!! I agree, blogging is my creativity and I make no excuses.

  • http://unveilingmoon.blogspot.com Rachel Stephan Simko

    Well said!
    I started blogging as a way to express spiritual creative expression– to document my spiritual journey in a creative way (the ONLY way I know how), and to share in that journey with my girl friends. Since I started, a friend has recommended other blogs (such as yours) and I have been so inspired by your words. If you (and the others) stopped posting, it would be a duller, lonelier life. Please don’t stop!

  • Michelle Hart

    BRAVO!!!!!

  • http://unveilingmoon.blogspot.com Rachel Stephan Simko

    Another thought I just had:

    What we do — what the “mommybloggers” in the world do — is more permanent than writing a research paper, or other such things of “higher” importance.

    What we do lasts beyond an intellectual thought. We we do creates relationships, connections, and has the power to change people. I am changed internally when I choose to encounter God through my writing; I am irrevocably changed when I read someone else’s honest and poignant musings.

    As Elizabeth pointed out, we may not be published, and we may never make money off of the things we write. But, the way I see it, that’s not the point. What an empty existence it would be to write only in the hopes of publication. We right to touch others, to discover and uncover things we wouldn’t have realized in our heads, and for a variety of other reasons. As far as I’m concerned, publication is low on the list of reasons to write.

    The short of it is: keep doing what you’re doing, having full confidence that what you do matters. It stays. There is power in the honest, written word. Embrace it.

    I’m getting off my soapbox now. ;)

  • http://cherishedheartsathome.blogspot.com/ Gae

    I have only been blogging just over a year. When I started I had no idea I would love it so much.
    I love sharing about my family, my faith and how we do things as a family in a family and how my family is so importatn to me.
    Thanks for sticking up for us “little undiscovered blogging Mama’s”
    Blessings

  • http://www.darcysheartstirrings.blogspot.com Darcy

    Yay for mommy-bloggers! If I didn’t
    have my blog to pour my heart into
    I’d go crazy. It’s like a release.
    And I love it when people comment and
    tell me that I wrote what THEY were
    feeling that day.

  • http://bellwhistlemoon.blogspot.com/ mary bailey

    Tell it, sister!

    Like others I am too tired and void of creativity to say anything else right now. Thanks for standing up to the bullies on the blogging playground for us. You always have just the right words!

  • http://www.heidijowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com Heidi Jo

    amen sister friend :o )

  • http://ifmeadowsspeak.blogspot.com/ Tammy@if meadows speak…

    Thank YOU for the wonderful encouragement. I love reading and just learning about others. Especially when people share their day-to-day trials and the life of MommyWood. So more power to it. I’m a Mommyblogger and I’m dang proud of it too. :)

  • http://colleenspiro.blogspot.com colleen

    Amen.

  • Stephanie Coffey

    Amen to that!

  • http://thinkingground.blogspot.com Christian H

    “what *is* a mommyblog? a mom who blogs? a blogger who happens to be a mom?”

    Presumably, a blogger who writes predominately about mothering, though I’m not sure that’s how people use it. I sometimes get the impression that it’s meant to be “a mother who blogs,” in which case that limiting factor comes up… why are fathers who blog not then DaddyBloggers? OR it could be an aesthetic judgement, along the lines of the characteristics I listed in the previous post.

    And who writes a blog for an intended audience anymore, or at least for an intended demographic? If I have an intended audience, it’s an individual I know.

    (Maybe I need to write a post about something like this, rather than spamming your comments…)

  • http://sandy-fallinglikerain.blogspot.com Sandy

    Amen! Sometimes I think part of the reason we should blog…is just because we can. If we don’t use our voices we will lose them. Since so many women in the world, indeed, most women, don’t have a voice at all, I say bring on the potty-training stories. Now, I won’t read them, but someone will, so keep it coming, ladies.

  • http://lisaspence.com lisa writes…

    Hear, hear!

  • http://been-couraged.blogspot.com Karen

    I love mommy-bloggers. I think the freedom of expression rocks!

  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p01127947188d28a4 AmberS

    I love this. I totally want to give you a big AMEN! Freedom of expression is the best. :)

  • http://metropolitanmama.net Stephanie

    Yes!

    Some of my favorite blogs are also “tiny, undiscovered ones.” I have discovered that the “trivial topics” of every day life often make the most fascinating posts…

  • Lydia Joy Johnston

    WAY TO SAY IT!! I’m not a mommy yet… but when God brings me to the right man and I marry I would LOVE to be a stay at home mom, and as someone who loves to write… who knows… I may end up mommy-blogging too one day…

    As for the mommy-jeans… LOVE IT. I’m 21 and as a young woman, I’m starting to realize that low-rise “teen-bopper” if you will jeans are DISGUSTING! Who wants 1/2 of their rear to show like a plumber or something? The sad part is… apperently me up until this year… now, when I shop, I head STRAIGHT for the mommy jean section. Why? Like I said earlier… I haven’t met the man God made for me yet (&& if I have, I don’t know that he’s him…) and I sure as heck don’t want his first impression of me to be “yup, that’s a girl who’s easy”

    Way to be, Elizabeth!