What's In a Blog?

Blogging, everyone is doing it – or so it seems. But why? In my life among my local friends, some get it, others don’t. Those that don’t, wonder why I devote time to a blog, when in reality we are all of us, as parents, short of that particular commodity. Others ask yet more philosophical questions; in essence they are saying (without a hint of rudeness) ‘why do you think you have something interesting to say, Leoarna?’ It is a valid question, and one I mull over regularly.

And yet. I went to a conference for parenting bloggers a couple of weeks ago. There were around 500 delegates present, all of them the proud owners of a little ol’ blog (in some cases not so little), all of them with a belief that they have something valid to add to the Blogoverse. For those of you who don’t read blogs besides this one, here’s a few impressive statistics for you. Did you know, for example, that 65% of all daily internet users read one blog a day? And that 46% of those same people will read more than one in any given 24 hour slot? 6 million people in the UK are following the 4000 or so bloggers who focus on parenting issues. That's 4000 individuals who all have something to contribute to the subject of how we raise our children in this country (and a lot of advertising revenue, by-the-by). I read recently that the majority of parents seek advice, particularly in the early stages of their child’s life, from online sources (which includes blogs) rather than asking family members.

Mum Club

Here at the Mum Network we’ve given a lot of thought to the power of blogging and bloggers. We’ve founded a Trusted Bloggers Club, where bloggers who have something valuable and interesting to add to the debates on everything from breastfeeding to social media use, and from managing relationships with children, to the wisdom of letting young children play with toy guns. The membership of the club, even though we’re just a couple of weeks old, is growing quickly, and we’ve already had some great posts added to the blog roll.

So I thought I would try, in today’s post, to entice you non-blog readers into the Blogoverse, by telling you about the blogs our members write, and what you can expect to find on their sites.

At Eggdipdip you’ll find a breezy, refreshing mix of news from Suzanne, who has recently moved her life, children and work 600 miles north, back to her beloved Scotland. She juggles her freelance writing career with the parenting of her two ‘free-range’ boys. She has already written a beautiful and engaging piece on how this all works from day to day on the Club’s blog pages here. Over at Making It Up, Jax has been blogging for more than ten years. She brings her experiences as a home educator, and her commendable social conscience to all that she writes, and she’s also a demon-reader, ploughing her way through books and reviewing them at a rate of knots. The lovely Iona, over at Redpeffer’s Blog, is spreading her blogging wings into the realms of producing valuable product reviews, and like me, has a strong interest in seeing the educational value in all the activities we undertake with our children – outside the classroom. Gill, who blogs at A Baby on Board, is a London mum who gives us plenty of insight into how to make city life entertaining for our young children, with a keen eye on the power of social media and on finding products that work for new mums. Michaela is our international member, as she lives and works in Melbourne, fitting her blogging and writing commitments around her three young girls. She writes engaging and valuable posts that always leave me feeling that my parenting will be a little better as a result of her wisdom – you can find her at Not Another Slippery Dip. Back in this country and Sharon, who blogs over at A Saucy Stitch brings humour to her passions for baking, sewing and vintage finds – and she’s got five children. Hats off to her for finding time to share her wit and crafting wisdom with us! Our newest member Kimberley is working to fulfil her long-held desire to be a midwife while caring for her two little ones. She blogs over at Ruby + Lottie and writes about children’s activities, hyperemesis, pregnancy and other ups and downs of her parenting life. And our other Suzanne, who’s blog, 3 children and it, was recently nominated in the finals of the Brilliance in Blogging awards, brings humour and some valuable perspective as she charts her life with three older children. Finally, our anonymous member, whom we call Mr Boos Mum, shows us how blogging can work for you even when you’re not so keen for everyone in your ‘other life’ to know you do it. Her blog, Premmeditations, focuses in on the challenges of supporting her son who was born at 29 weeks. Her post for the club about the power of social media to bring camaraderie into our lives, has had plenty of reads.

I’ve been tasked with shaping the success of the club, and only a few weeks in, I am loving the job. We’re hoping to embrace ever greater numbers of bloggers, and contribute to the genuine and purposeful debates about modern parenting that are played out every day online. So getting back to the question of why anyone blogs, there is no one simple answer. I recently wrote a post about why I do it, but everyone has their own take on the matter. Perhaps in the end it is enough to say, as we do on the Trusted Blogger Club homepage, that we do it to express, to connect, to capture, to create, to debate, to collaborate, and to enrich our perspectives. Powerful stuff. Why not come take a peek?

About the author

Leoarna Mathias

A writer who's beginning to write, claims my twitter bio. My specialist subjects include the parenting 'juggle', the 'help' we get from the policy makers, and what it means to be a mum in the 21st century. Nothing too adventurous then... Proud to lead the Trusted Blogger Club!

Click here to read my full biography.