Although I have been blogging for nearly 10 years now (gasp!) it wasn’t until last December – January that I started kickin’ it up a notch by getting my own personal site and learning more blogging tips. Two years ago I would go “Huh?” if someone mentioned the word SEO.
Still far from a pro blogger or a pro mommy blogger that I admired, I find learning to manage my site is actually fun and I’m happy to have my ‘own’ place to dump my thoughts at.
Some people, especially Mommy Bloggers out there will agree with me that writing is simply therapeutic. If you would only read between the lines, see pass all our beautiful cute little kiddos you’ll see that Mommy Bloggers are not that much different than other bloggers out there. We have our thoughts and opinions about stuff (from which diaper bags are the best down to the US Health Care Plans!) even after tons of stinky diapers to change, sleep-deprived state of mine, or being walking targets for projectile vomits…we are human after all.
So when I saw the article in New York Times about Mommy Blogger, it left a bad taste in my mouth!
Maybe it hits much closer to home because I can identify myself as a Mommy Blogger now but for someone that’s been blogging since my single-date-juggling-days some of my friends already know that I just love to blog/write, period!
It reminds me of one particular event in my life when I’ve only picked up the role as a mommy for 13 months and Lil’ A was hospitalized for 3 days due to Bronchiolitis. After a mad rush to the ER in the middle of the night, because he was wheezing so bad and was so miserable, he got admitted pretty much right away due to low oxygen level. For a first time mother, this freaked the crap out of me! I stayed with him that night, he had to be put under a special oxygen hood (looks like a plastic tent). My poor baby was so uncomfortable and scared from the loud sounds of the machines, he was traumatized by one inexperienced nurse who had to stick his arm 3 times trying to get the IV in and finally gave up, went to get her senior after I loudly complain and successfully keeping my hands from strangling her neck, it was combination’s of many things but he was pretty much inconsolable. His cries ripped my heart to pieces! Probably only mothers can relate to how horrifying it is to feel so helpless and powerless not being able to take your baby’s pain away. That night I didn’t sleep at all as I had to sit there inside the hood, holding him on top of me where he would stop crying and screaming for a few minutes, fell asleep and at the slightest sounds or movements will wake him up and started again. We were both badly traumatized, to say the least!
Morning came and DH took over, he couldn’t stay with me since we have another son at home and a dog to be taken care of. I stumbled outside the hospital, went home still shaking and worried sick for our little boy. Got home, made myself a cup of coffee then get online, posted on my then blog asking friends to pray for our boy. It wasn’t even a long post and I didn’t add the picture well until he was released from the hospital, 3 days later.
Within less than 2 weeks after he was discharged, we took him to see his pediatrician again at the night clinic because of his cough. He started wheezing and had retractions (drawing in of the neck and chest with each breath), oxygen level was low and we were sent to the hospital immediately. Quick update on my blog seems harmless, right? Oh, not so much, people!
Weeks after those horrible scariest times of our lives, I started hearing some buzz about what a terrible mother I am. “Can you believe that she still blog when her son was in the hospital?” you know somewhere along those lines.
This got me infuriated! What the heck?
Apparently, some people failed to see that for me (and for a lot of people), writing/blogging is one of my coping mechanisms! It only took me less than 30 minutes to post something, around the same amount of time others need to take a shower (hey, a long relaxing lavender-scented-bubble bath might even take up to an hour!) After all the stresses from dealing with a really sick little boy, blogging helps me pouring it out! Yes, I cried my eyes out during those times in the hospital and I can’t sleep, not even when I switched ‘duties’ with my ex-husband and I got a chance to come home for a quick shower and get the much-needed sleep.
These people have no idea what’s going on in my house yet they dare calling me a bad mother because a few lines I managed to share and obviously published with tears rolling out of my face asking them to pray for us?
Unless you had walked a few hundred miles in someone else shoes, please try not to judge other mothers! It’s hard enough juggling between being a mother, a domestic diva, a dutiful wife to her husband, some even managed to threw a job into the mix of their responsibilities, so when we mommies managed to write something and published it on our blogs that doesn’t mean we left our children running around like wild animals in the background! The sad part is sometimes the worst critique on us comes in a form of…surprise surprise…another mommy!
So what if these mommy bloggers wants to learn more about building a better blog? So what if they can make extra income for their families in doing so? Heck, if I was still in the US you bet I would’ve join these other smarts, innovative, creative mommies, for their Bloggy Bootcamp!
Wow, that sounds like such an awful ordeal. And then to have to hear later about how you shouldn’t have been blogging. It must have made the whole thing just that much worse, Sometimes, people just need to learn to stop judging others so harshly for things they know nothing about!
I got to this blog, because I saw your post on SITS blogfrog community and I am now following you, if you would like to follow me back, I am at http://faerie-fangs.blogspot.com/ 😉
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Crafty, for Nature =-.
when somebody’s jealous, that means that person isn’t capable of doing what you’re doing and wishing to be able too. ‘sirik tanda tak mampu’. don’t listen to this bitter person, just move along. you’re right, for most of us, writing [blog] is another way of ‘chanelling’. while others drink themselves silly, smoking or taking drugs, we write 🙂
I have to remember that, Diny…’sirik tanda tak mampu’ Btw, how are you? You haven’t blog in awhile and I miss reading your blog, get back to writing, woman! 😉
I admire your bravery! That must have been so scary. I am so glad to see he is better and healthy! When we had a febrile seizure scare with our baby, I blogged from the hospital. It helped me to write and then later helped other moms, dads and others searching about febrile seizures. Kudos to you for doing what you feel is right!
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