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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To glaze over at the term "mummy blogger"?

66 replies

YoFluffy · 04/10/2011 08:55

There are blogs and there are blogs. Some are a wonderful example of creative writing, or interesting content, some are informative. And others are mind-numbingly mundane.

AIBU to glaze over at the term "mummy blogger"? Who finds time to read about someone's child having another loose nappy, someone's DH working away for the night, someone deciding beside casserole or curry for tea? More to the point, who is interested? Is this where feminism has brought us? To furiously pen journals about the boring minutae of our day and expect audiences to hang on every word?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping blogs as our own personal diaries, but surely we aspire to be more than (one of thousands of) "mummy bloggers"?

OP posts:
strawberry17 · 04/10/2011 12:07

I too glaze over at mummy blogs. I have a blog but not a mummy blog. I started it initially purely for myself but my interest in the blogging world grew. Now, like Mme Lindor, I never buy magazines, I look at a few interesting blogs instead LOL

HengshanRoad · 04/10/2011 12:08

The worst has to be Kelle Hampton's "Enjoying The Small Things". It's like:

"LOOK AT MY PERFECT LIFE! I'M AMAZING!

Oh crap, my second child has special needs... NO PROBLEM! Let's gloss over it. Life is still perfect!! Win one of these floral headbands from my sponsor!"

Yuck. You can see the weariness on her husband's face in all the photos, as if he's saying "Kell, come on. Enough with the photos. You're supposed to be enjoying the small things."

YaMaYaMa · 04/10/2011 12:13

I've only ever had a look at 2, both linked from MN - Cherry Menlove (vom) and some absolute nob who I wont name as wouldnt want to give her any traffic. I ony came across her as she was on here trolling 'defending' a fellow blogger. But, fuck, she was irritating. To the extent that I will never read another 'mummyblog' again Smile

Also, I dont think feminism is to blame Hmm

MmeLindor. · 04/10/2011 12:13

Proon
I did think like that about Cherry Menlove, but feel bad now cause her husband is so ill.

And tbh, I would be really upset if people were nasty about my blog (even though I know that you are putting yourself out there and you have to accept that not everyone will like what you do)

Pandemoniaa · 04/10/2011 12:16

I dislike the term "mummy" full stop. I suspect that my ultimate bete noir would be "Yummy Mummy Blogger".

However, I particularly dislike the sort of mummy blog where horridly well-turned out (but casually kind of retro looking) women manage to fill their days with twee activities and self-conscious "mummying". Always of the sort that can only truly be achieved when the yummy one's husband brings in a mammoth salary, incidentally.

Not that I have anything against, money, it has to be said! Just that I'd really like these women to face the real world before they ram the perfection that is their life down their reader's throats.

Proon · 04/10/2011 12:17

I didn't know her husband was ill, that is a shame.
I think that blog however is a product, not a reflection of the person herself; a tool to kick-start a Kirstie-style career.

FlossieFromCrapstonVillas · 04/10/2011 12:17

I've just had a look at that Kelle blog. Beautiful photos but it must be EXHAUSTING to constantly be thinking about the blog. There seems to be no stone left unturned, the poor kids can't even have a bath without their Mother photographing them 'For the blog' - their whole life seems to be For. The. Blog.

MmeLindor. · 04/10/2011 12:20

Yes, I agree Proon.

There are times when I have consciously thought, "Right. Leave the camera at home, this is for US. Not for a blog post".

It is a slipperly slope to overshare.

LeBOF · 04/10/2011 12:22

I don't read many blogs, but I think a lot of the snarking about mummybloggers is very dismissive. Preachy lifestyle blogs of any description are dull as dishwater, but a blog which is funny and insightful is funny and insightful whether it mentions family life or not.

Bloggers are a fashinable target for mockery, but there are still plenty of mediocre professional columnists writing utter drivel who offend me more.

Blueberties · 04/10/2011 12:25

I think it's meant to be dismissive though. I think people are being deliberately dismissive.

I didn't know blogs were a fashionable target for mockery, I thought they were all the rage. Am not often in fashion but happy to break a habit for this. I don't really see the point of them at all except in terms of self-expression, like a diary.

Proon · 04/10/2011 12:26

I agree LeBOF, in fact I think quite a few columnists would be far better off as bloggers so I didn't have to ignore their column inches and tut about paying for drivel.

MmeLindor. · 04/10/2011 12:26

BOF
at least columnists are making money out their drivel. Very few bloggers do.

LeBOF · 04/10/2011 12:27

That makes them even more irksome, MmeL

TheBride · 04/10/2011 12:27

Blogging is like self-pub

"The best thing about it is that anyone can do it. The worst thing about it is that anyone can do it"

WilsonFrickett · 04/10/2011 12:30

YY Makiko After a few posts, it all turns to cupcakes and overwritten descriptions of a day collecting driftwood on the beach

OP, you are definitely not being unreasonable but I don't really see what it has to do with feminism?

Did you know there are an estimated 156 million live blogs in existance, fact fans? There is quite literally, nothing left to blog about... Except blogging. We're all on a never-ending blogroll of our own lives.

GetOrfMo1Land · 04/10/2011 12:35

I don't read blogs, but went and had a look at Esther Walker's after seeing it on here, and she writes very well, and comes cross as very charming. And she is so pretty.

LeBOF · 04/10/2011 12:35

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a shit blog out there which is just a collection of links to that week's shit blogs. Point and laugh, it never goes out of style.

Blueberties · 04/10/2011 12:47

Do you have a blog Bof

LeBOF · 04/10/2011 12:50

Nope.

Blueberties · 04/10/2011 12:51

jeez you all made me click on that mn "blogs" front page for the first time

I am really not getting it AT ALL

I don't understand the appeal even to read to laugh at it

It must be nice to have a blog as a diary and for relatives to catch up on what you're doing but just for anyone to read, the whole world? people you don't know reading about your day and you reading about the days of other people you don't know? can't compute

Blueberties · 04/10/2011 12:53

but then some people say that about this place so I suppose it's same same

Pandemoniaa · 04/10/2011 12:56

"The best thing about it is that anyone can do it. The worst thing about it is that anyone can do it"

Spot on.

Although I must confess that as someone who, allegedly, can write for a living, the one form of expression that I struggle with is the blog. Either I get wildly libellous in my intolerance or I look back at what I've written and think "what a self-centred pile of shyte". I suspect I am far better writing about anyone else in the world except me.

MmeLindor. · 04/10/2011 12:57

There are indeed blogs about blogging. How to blog, how to get more hits, what blogging platform ...

For me, blogging is being able to express myself in words, having an outlet for all my rants and opinions.

Maybe it is due to living abroad where no one understands me, and I need to chatter online otherwise DH would get it both barrels when he gets home after work.

MmeLindor. · 04/10/2011 12:59

Yes, Blueberries. Blogging is an extension of MN except that on my blog most people agree with me.

:)

GetOrfMo1Land · 04/10/2011 12:59

I don't see that blogging is wildly different from coming on here and spoiuting all sorts of nonsense to strangers, tbh.

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