The World of Blogging

That can’t be right. I look at the number again: a study reports that 3.9 million mothers blog in the United States alone. I read the text again; the article may be saying that mommy bloggers are both women who write and women who read blogs. Nevertheless, it is a mind-boggling number. It represents a lot of text and time spent on sharing parenting experiences on the Internet.

A blog – short for “web log,” by the way – is an interactive journal, published on the Internet. It is interactive because readers can comment on the various entries, or posts, in the blog. These comments can be as big of a part of the blog’s impact and personality as the writer of the blog. They tend to be updated regularly, from once per day to once per week or month. Companies may have blogs for products or processes. Individuals can blog about anything – from mostly photos to all text. The sub-genre of blogs written by, or at least partially about, mothers is called “mommy blogging.”

Mommy blogs are extremely varied, however, in their form and their function. They can be highly commercial (supported by ad revenue and corporate sponsors) and widely read – for instance theBloggess.com and ThePioneerWoman.com – complete with beautiful photography, carefully crafted, humorous writing and spin-off products like books and TV shows. They can also be extremely personal and private: I have a friend who shares access to a blog that only she and two friends can read and write in, as a way of keeping in touch.

In between, there lie all the niche groups you can imagine. There is a large Mormon Mommy Blogging community. There are blogs written by mothers with serious, and sometimes terminal, illnesses. Single mothers, working mothers, mothers who have lost children, mothers who homeschool their children, mothers who have travelled from distant lands and landed in Switzerland with their families (Swiss expat blogs are listed at http://www.expatsblog.com/blogs/switzerland). With so many people writing about their experiences in parenting, it is likely there is a blog or two out there that will resonate with any reader. This is part of the power of these blogs – a chance to read about, and connect with, the experiences of a parent somewhat like yourself. To start looking at some of these blogs, type a few keywords into Google (for instance, “expat mom blog”) and check out a few of the results. Many blogs are linked to other blogs that the writer likes, so starting in one blog will often lead you to discover others.

About me and blogging

Lest this get too hypothetical, let me give some examples from my own experiences.

I read blogs. On a daily basis, I only visit four of them – Dooce.com (short, funny posts, pretty photos, usually makes me feel better than an equal amount of time spent reading a news website); the New York Times parenting blog collection called Motherlode http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/ (featuring many writers on any topic related to modern, first-world parenting, these are the posts I will forward to, or discuss with, other parents); and two work-related blogs – a playground blog called Playscapes http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.ch/ and a museum blog called Museum2.0 http://museumtwo.blogspot.ch/. Occasionally, I go looking for other blogs from people with similar parenting, health, work, or expat situations as mine.

I also write a blog, called The Dog Comes With http://thedogcomeswith.blogspot.ch/. I started it as a way to keep family and friends updated on my move to Switzerland. It has also become a place I write about other aspects of my life – my thoughts on academia and science, my thoughts on motherhood, my experiences abroad. It is semi-anonymous, in that I don’t use my husband’s, daughter’s or even my dog’s real names. It is honest while not being completely expository. I don’t write about certain aspects of my marriage. And as my daughter grows, I write more selectively about her. I try to keep its contents centered on my experiences, because I think that ethically those are the only ones I have the right to expose. I try to be fairly open about the difficulties of life, because I have found great comfort and strength in similar stories of others. Mine is rarely the blog of photos of a beautiful family (or clean home, or perfect quiche). It is a place where I practice writing non-fiction essays. And on some days, it is the place I get my motivation for work writing – just by starting to write.

You and blogging

What about blogging yourself? While blogging for profit takes a lot of time and work  (imagine composing a new, carefully crafted piece of writing or beautifully shot, and uploaded photograph every day, for years) blogging for a small audience does not need to be hard.

If you’d like to give it a try, there are a few main steps:

Step 1. Think a bit about what you will write about and who your audience will be. Writing is like a conversation; what you say, how you say it, and what you leave out will all vary depending on whom you are writing to.

Step 2. Pick a platform. I use Blogger, which I access through a Google Gmail account.

There is also WordPress. More instructions for using either can be found at http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog

Step 3. Write, but only if you enjoy it. A personal blog shouldn’t be a chore. We have enough of those in daily life already.

It is another beautifully snowy Monday day in Zürich as I finish writing this. Not enough has happened yet (one car skidding down our street does not count) in my day for it to fill up a blog post. I may just post a photo of the snow to Facebook and be done with it. Or, if I have some thought-provoking encounter with my surroundings, I may be itching to share something, and I’ll go log in to my blog and start writing.

By Audra Baleisis
Audra has been in Zürich almost four years, with her husband, her daughter, who was born after she arrived, and her dog. She is originally from Chicago, but spent many years in warm, dry and sunny Arizona. She works part-time in science communication at the university level as well as with the public.