Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 73)

Mommy Wars...13 Reasons a "Mature" Mommy Reads Non-Mommy Bloggers

OK...I don't take any responsibility for this. A fan of Live and Let Di sent a private e-mail to me indicating why she liked to read my blog, dooce, verbatim, Serious Eats, Amateur Gourmet, Musings of a Highly Trained Monkey and Pioneer Woman and in the interest of full disclosure, I agreed to allow a guest blog.

1.  They rarely talk about nursing, toilet training, getting toddlers to eat or co-sleeping except in the very past tense.  If at all.

2.  There is no mention of God, Our Lord Jesus Who Will Save Us All If We Just Let Him, and Why We Should All Be Praying To My God, Who Happens To Be The Right God.  Not the God of those yuppie liberals.

3. They talk about cooking, food and eating food.

4.  They talk about the latest news, have opinions that can and may differ from other opinions, and solicit opinion different from their own without attacking the different-opinion-offerer (I guess Bush would call that a "diffinianator").

5.  Their lives revolve around something other than their children.  In some cases, a working ranch, taking pictures of cool things, golf, books, medical issues, cooking and food.

6.  Do you see a food theme here?

7.  Oh, I forgot this one, which is only about fashion and lack of food:

Go Fug Yourself

8.  They are all snarky and witty and sarcastic, and use multi-syllabic words.

9.  They refer to their husbands by name, or by nickname, or  by the delineation "husband".  NOT "hubby", which makes me think of Farmer Hogget's wife in "Babe".  Internet, is that honestly the mental picture you want me to carry of you?  Then stop with the "hubby!".

10.  I've learned something new from all these blogs.  Whether it's golf terminology, all about Mormonism, calf nuts, how to cook bone marrow, how crazy the methodonians and fibromyalgians are in the blogosphere, or why Leggings Are Really Bad, it's almost always educational for me to read these blogs.  Again, I've been there, done with that with the kid stuff.  And I didn't do it to the extremes that people seem to be doing it now.

11.  I'm entertained by the bloggers. They write well, use proper grammar and have a way of telling stories without spending inordinate sentences on minutia.

12.  New content is added nearly every day.  If they're going to take a break from blogging, they let their readers know.  I appreciate the respect these bloggers show their readers.

13.  I have little in common with any of them.  This may sound surprising, but it is the very reason I enjoy reading them so much--they are a group of women who live different lives from me.  They live in different parts of the country, none of them are in my line of work, their kids (when they do write about them) are different ages than mine.  This, to me, is the beauty and wonder of the internet.  To "visit" every day with these women, none of whom I would meet in my real life-that, folks, is why I appreciate living in an age where such things are possible.

signed,

Sardine Fiend

Brought to you by Di...who LOVES the diversity of fans and foes in the blogosphere!

y Thirt

Comments

[Lori]

They blog about their pets and talk thru them on their blog. It really freaks me out...lol. Happy TT and thanks for stopping by.

[Kaige]

Food's always a good topic.

Happy TT!
http://impulsivehearts.wordpress.com/

[Robin]

I read many of those blogs too, but I also read momblogs - not mommy blogs, which to me sounds insipid and full of nothing but "isn't my life cute" pictures, but momblogs - blogs written by multi-faceted women who also happen to be mothers dealing with issues similar to mine. I need blogs I read to be multi-dimensional though. Cute kid pictures are fine, heck I post some of my own, but there also needs to be interesting and original content, and all the better if it makes me think or takes me outside of my comfort zone.

Great idea for a list, lots to ponder here.

[kelly]

Mommy blogs make me feel great pity on them, not really interest. Maybe it is because I don't have kids... and may not...? I dunno.

What really annoys me though, are wifey bloggers.

Blogs that are entitled, "Mrs David." Or "Ken's wife."

GAG ME! ;-) Great post.

[JOANN]

Sardine, great post.....these are the BEST comments, the ones with which I most identify:

"1. They rarely talk about nursing, toilet training, getting toddlers to eat or co-sleeping except in the very past tense. If at all.

2. There is no mention of God, Our Lord Jesus Who Will Save Us All If We Just Let Him, and Why We Should All Be Praying To My God, Who Happens To Be The Right God. Not the God of those yuppie liberals.

and

Again, I've been there, done with that with the kid stuff. And I didn't do it to the extremes that people seem to be doing it now."

[Darla]

It makes sense--none of us is just one thing, despite how all-consuming parenthood can be. :)