A lovely dinner guest and musings on Blogging

I have a bit of a treat for you today. Do you remember Little Mummy’s fantastic Guest Post Day last week? Well, I was very excited to be matched with the very lovely Amanda from Angels and Urchins, who writes the blog on behalf of this great parenting magazine. Now, we’re a bit late with this, having both been a little snowed under last week when everyone else was busy writing their posts. But it was too good an opportunity to miss.

I think guest posting is a great idea, and Erica is a super star for encouraging people to get to know each this way. Yes, for the most part we write personal blogs, but I imagine it all a bit like a dinner part sometimes. Sure, it’s lovely to be at the head of the table, with your familiar friends around you, but sometimes it’s lovely and exiting and challenging to invite someone new, who maybe you don’t know very well, to encourage them tell their story and meet all of your pals.

So here she is, I hope you’ll make her feel very welcome…

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It’s a great idea, this guest post swap from Littlemummy. It’s part of her 10-part weekly Mum E-Blogger Course , and if you haven’t already signed up, go for it here. Alternatively, buy the entire course for a very wallet-friendly £8.99 here.

The idea of the guest post day (which was officially last Friday, but what are a few days in the virtual world?) was to forge links between bloggers, and help teach about the virtues of reciprocal links. Which got me thinking.

The very first time I ever heard of the term ‘blog’ was through a friend from school days. She’s a serial expat, and is currently living in Kazakhstan with her three young daughters and husband. Oh, and a fourth daughter was born last week. She started her blog while living in South Korea, and it was called Big Seoul Sister. Her Kazakhstan version is called Big Beluga Baby. And, strange to say, my immediate reaction was, ‘What a curious thing to do, write about your life for the world to see. And not just see, but comment on’.

You see, I felt that private life should be just that – private. Unless, of course, you wanted to disclose it through face to face conversations with friends.

There was clearly a lot I hadn’t realised about blogging. In this case, I’d also overlooked the fact that geography was separating the blogger from many of the people she would ordinarily have conversations with. But my naivety went further than that.

Blogging is about communication. Much of this communication is with yourself, especially if you’re using a blog to hone your writing skills, or document a particular stage of your life. And while you could do both of these things without the benefit of a computer and the internet, being able to share your experiences with a wider audience (even if it’s just your mum and her coffee morning buddy) deepens the experience. For a start, you have to get on with it. There are deadlines to be met, even if they’re you’re own. Then once you get going, you start to get comments to moderate and respond to. You start to interact with other blogs by leaving comments. And when you ‘meet’ fellow bloggers, you discover a world that is very different to your own. It’s not that you want to replace your existing circle of friends, but making contact with people whose opinions and lives are very different to your own can be a heady and addictive experience.

Take Sleep is for the Weak. I haven’t met its author, Josie, in person, but I have a very vivid mental picture of her. She’ll be the first to read this (and has editorial right of veto, which she may well employ!), but I’m imagining someone fiercely intelligent, inquisitive and dynamic. Her blog makes me smile and laugh, and I admire her get up and go. Just look at the way she set up Judith’s Room in about three days, a wonderful creative writing community for women, where members can write, share, and support each other.

If this is what happens to girl power when it grows up, I’m in. Particularly because it’s such a fabulous resource for mums, who by their very job description are usually short on time (not to mention sleep), but as keen to interact (gossip/laugh) as they were before having children.

Blogging gives the chance to communicate whatever the time, day or night. You can dip in for five seconds, or lose an entire evening to reading posts and laughing your head off. You can ask questions about the swine flu jab. Or holiday destinations. Or whether other schools also go crazily competitive when it comes to the charity bake sale. And if you’re feeling swamped by laundry, or overwhelmed by tricky toddlers or teens, this can be very liberating. Much as I love my friends, I can’t think of many who’d appreciate a question about nits at 2am, but this is just what I can do through the blog network. And unlike trawling through Google, the response might make me laugh. And by the end of it, I might even have found a kindred spirit who also empties the dishwasher in the small hours of the morning.

So this guest post is really to thank Josie for generously allowing me on to her blog. Did I mention that angels & urchins was her first guest blogger? Gulp. And it’s a wider thank you to the world’s bloggers, lofty though that may sound. Crazy, opinionated, one-track or multi-faceted, in my opinion we’re a richer society for these newly created networks.

And for once, mothers really can claim to have been there at every stage of invention.

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Ok, I’m blushing a little bit now. Thank you Amanda honey, it’s been a pleasure to have you. Even if you did eat all the cake… tsk…. x

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