Category Archives: blog

How Not To Raise Your Child

As I like to say, when it comes to parenting, there are more opinions than there are actual children. I am a parent, and have managed to keep my children alive, one for over two years, so in that sense, go me! However, this does not qualify me to give advice to anyone in regards to parenting. Because honestly, I have about as much a clue on the subject as you do. I know my kids, and I may know some things about yours, but at the end of the day, they are your children, and you know them best.
Parents who get all preachy and judgmental drive me up a wall. Unless I am directly harming my children, please mind your own business, and I will mind mine. Currently my business is my own kids. Which I mind just fine.
I am sure you have opinions, and frankly I would love to hear them, because that is how I get half of my own ideas. I hear what other people have to say, and then decide whether or not I like what I am hearing. If you want to know my opinion on different things like breast feeding, potty training, discipline and so forth, well, not surprisingly, I have a lot of them. I will gladly share, and talk your ear off. But I will not be offended if at the end of my rant you chose to say “no, thank you” to everything I have said. Because that is your prerogative.
It does take a village to raise a child, and there should definitely be a conversation between parents on best practices. That is how we all learn. Especially if you are having your first child and someone else has already been there done that, multiple times. That is called learning from others’ experiences. It is a wonderful process, and can be very helpful. But when the parent in the know takes it upon themselves to bash everyone else who does not take their advice, then it gets ugly. It is no longer called a conversation, it morphs into something akin to an argument. And from some of the blogs and boards I have seen, it can get pretty heated.
Some topics are a lot hotter than others. Breast feeding is one of them. If you have been reading my blog, you will know that I have tried (wasn’t all too successful, and if you read A Nervous Tic Motion this coming Thursday you will get a glimpse into why). Others have chosen not to try. I can respect that even if I don’t understand it.
But then again I have seen people tare each other to shreds in forums over much more innocuous matters, such as which onesies and rattles are best. Seriously folks? If you are having trouble sleeping because someone else gave their kid a rattle you don’t agree with there is a much larger issue there. Hint: it’s not the rattle.
So I am going to ask the age old question of why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we share parenting experiences like kittens? Because no one ever argues about which kitten is best. We can all agree they are all wonderful.
So, in conclusion, I am ending with this hilarious, and only mildly off topic cartoon from Time.

Cheers! Happy Birthday/ Anniversary!

I am totally plotting against that corn dog…
Happy Birthday! Anniversary? My blog is one year old today… what do I call this? I am not sure, but I am pretty excited. When I first started blogging, almost two years ago, I did not have a blog of my own. I mostly got my stuff published on Yahoo! Shine, and had a sprinkling of other articles all over the internets. Then one day I got inspired, and decided I wanted my own blog. I was also 9 months pregnant and potentially delusional.
Either way, with some help from an awesome web guy, you know who you are, I launched this little place. So, if you ever got super bored and looked through my archive, there are like a bagillion (read seventy something) posts all on this day last year. Because I wanted a home for all my random stuff strewn all over the place.
I had no idea what I was getting into, but I was excited. I still have no clue what I am doing, and I am still very excited. So I guess not much has changed on that front. But somewhere in the hundreds of posts, and interactions I found my voice. I heard a lot of people say that, but I never knew what they meant, because you see, little newbie naïve me thought I had a voice back then. I could not imagine what finding one was like. I figured it was like finding a puppy except you don’t have to ask anyone if you can keep it because you are the boss. To be honest I had a voice (and a puppy), but it was not well tuned (the voice, not the puppy). It was a fledgling voice (very much like the puppy). In a way I still very much resemble myself a year ago (which is a good thing since a year really isn’t that long). But my voice has gotten stronger (and the puppy has grown). Either that or I have just gotten louder. Very possible.
One thing I have obviously not yet honed: my analogy skills. Because puppies and blogs are nothing alike. You have to look after a blog each day. Walk it on social media road to socialize it with other blogs and show it off to everyone.  You have to feed it new posts to keep it alive. When you first got it you named it. You show it to anyone who even mentions the word Blog. Wait a minute… okay, so maybe blogs and dogs are similar. Maybe. The verdict is still out. Except for the corn dog in the picture for this post. I am totally plotting against that one.
In other news, happy birthday/anniversary little blog!
And I saved the best part for last. A big THANK YOU to all of you who supported this blog, read all my posts, informative and silly alike. Thank you for checking in to see what is new. Thank you for the comments and emails. While my posts were food for the blog and kept it going, you guys were the water. And I am going to stop now before this analogy gets any worse.
Cheers! And hopefully this coming year will be even better!

What Is A Blogger?

Last night I was sitting on the couch, fiddling with my phone. Hubby looked at me and asked what I was doing. I told him I was blogging. His response: “On your phone? How can you see what you are typing?”
A lot of people don’t understand some nuances of blogging. Yes, I am a blogger, but a large part of what I do does not entail writing. Between all the sites I contribute to I try to have at least 5 posts per week, which does in fact take time and lots of typing. But blogging is not just about me facing my computer and spewing forth whatever ideas I may have at the time. Although I do admit that that does happen quite a bit.
Blogging is a conversation. With others. Because otherwise I would just be talking to myself. And that is no fun. To participate in this conversation I have to see what others are saying. So basically I read a lot of other awesome blogs all day and call it research. Best. Job. Ever.
Then, once I have read what other people are saying, I am ready to put in my two cents worth. Also, as mentioned above, sometimes I read what everyone else is talking about, and I don’t get it. So I just kind of go into my own little corner and write about totally random business. But I had good intentions. And you know what they say about those.
So I have written my blog. And I posted it. Then hubby points out all the typos and grammar errors. I honestly wish there was a system where I could get him to point all those out *before* I post publicly. But since I have all of two followers, the chances of anyone noticing are pretty slim. If I ever become famous maybe I will work out some sort of system where that happens so I am not making a fool of myself in front of everyone. Not that my blog doesn’t do that for me anyhow, but I would rather be remembered for other follies than “poor English skills.” I know, maybe I will start editing my own stuff. Or ask hubby to do it before I post. I like the second option better.
See? All sorts of work has gone into blogging already, and I am not even done. Alright, so my post now looks decent enough to really present to the world, so I have to network to get it viewed. Sure, part of networking is posting the link to my stuff on Twitter and Facebook. But no one likes being spammed with nothing but links all day. I honestly try not to just do that very often, but I have been guilty of it in the past. Not to mention so many people say interesting things on Twitter and Facebook I can’t help getting caught up in the conversations. I call this step being a Networking Maven. Hubby calls it Tweeting all day.
Blogging is much more than just writing a few posts. So yes, I write. A lot. But an even larger part of what I do is building an online presence. Meaning I stand in front of my computer yelling “I am here! I am here!” Oh, is that not how computers work? See! I constantly need to tweak my system and find better ways of communicating with people. Because that is really the essence of blogging. Communication.
And spending a lot of time doing absolutely nothing but calling it work.
P.S. I am sure some of you may have noticed that the cute squirrel picture I am using for this post has absolutely nothing to do with the content. That is yet another facet of blogging, looking up cute pictures online.