Parenting Teens: Teens That Blog

There is a building debate in the mom blog world about if or not mom bloggers should be posting about their teens. The debate seems to focus on the early adapter moms who started blogging before their kids could read and now the kids are objecting to what they are reading being written about them.

Since I have only been blogging for about 6 months I have no dog in that fight. If I didn’t write about my kids, I would have nothing to write about. My kids get to complain about what I write to their friends whose moms don’t blog. They get sympathy; I have an unending supply of blog post material and a handy parental warning. I even heard my husband say to one of the kids “Watch it or you are going to become a blog post!”

Posting about my teens is no problem. My teens posting about me, big problem. I have a child who blogs in the old fashion sense of the word. She has an online diary read by her friends, their mothers and it seems a good half the world’s population of teens.

My daughter is a brilliant writer. Brilliance is in her genes. She is insightful, quirky and edgy. She is good with words. She can take an ordinary situation, give it a twist and delight her readers. She could be a G-rated Daily Show writer and supply her own video for each segment.

The problem is I usually only appear in her blog when she is mad at me. The extensive vocabulary she possesses get put to impressive use in letting the world know what an mean mother this child has. Who knew a teen could be so expressive with a G rated vocabulary. You would never know from reading her blog she has a father both active and interested in her life. There are siblings that appear when she is mad at them or they have done something nice for her. No other family member has reached my Attila the Mom Status.

I don’t like it.

I threatened censorship with a previous blog she had but have decided against that route with this one. Unless she starts building bombs in the basement or running numbers, than all freedom of expression becomes void.

At least her latest blog isn’t titled “Mommy Dearest”.

Blogs Worth A Click: I Love Your Blog Award Addition

 I had received this award once before (thanks again Gina). The award is on its second and third rounds through the e-card universe. I was feeling like a wallflower at a bloggy party because no one had sent it my way again. (Cue sad tragic music!)

I enjoy blog awards because there are lots of blogs I read and am happy to pass on some link love. Therefore I was surprised and delighted to receive it from Nicole at The Daily Dish and Ryan and Kathy at Trapped in the Office.

The Daily Dish offers a dose of interesting commentary and great recipes. Check out the one for Pumpkin Empanadas.

Trapped in the Office is a new to me blog.Ryan and Katy have escaped the cororated world for that of  freelance writerdom. The post about what some people want to pay freelancers is an good place to join their adventure.

The rules, you get to post the cute logo on your blog, link back to who ever was kind enough to award it to you and pass it on to seven other blogs. I have one alternative rule. Writing award posts is more time consuming than you might think. I prefer this award be a appreciation for blogs I enjoy, not a burden to the receivers. So pass it on if you like or not. Either way these are all blogs that are worth a click.

The Junk Drawer. Kathy will have to start a special page just for all the awards she receives.They are given with good reason. This is a favorite of mine to read.

JD at I Do Things So You Don’t Have To will soon need a separate page also. A great humor blog with an unique hook.

Gail at Life After Death: a widow’ story is a new blogger. She tells the story of her husband’s death and her new life journey. Gail is an excellent writer. If you have a moment to leave her a comment that would be encouraging to her.

Consecrated Life. A well written blog about a life most of us know little about.

Diane at Foreign Language Fun  A useful resource for anyone interested in teaching children a foreign language. Many of the resources are free.

Kid Tech Guru A 14-year-old tech blogger. I don’t pretend to understand all Xavier posts about but I can pick up enough to impress my personal tech princess for a short while. He has a blog contest going on.

Mid Life Misfits Another favorite that never fails to produce a smile.

What Do You do While Dropping E-Cards?

E-card for those of you who don’t know is a wonderful free traffic building service open to all bloggers. For new bloggers, it is a way to get your blog noticed and maybe even read by others of our ilk.

E-card is free (for now) but it does take time. You can get the details of getting started at Entrecard.com. Once set up, you visit other E-card members and “drop your card”. I am kinda compulsive so I drop the limit of 300 cards most days. It takes me about an hour and a half a day to complete 300 drops. Since this is my main means of consistent traffic to date, I see that as a reasonable investment of time. I could drop faster but there are blogs I read most days, comments to leave and there are always interesting blogs to discover.

I am curious what other e-carders do while they are dropping and hopefully commenting as we go our merry way. I was listening to TV shows I had TiVoed. Now I listen to St Augustine’s Confessions. This is a college level course available for The Teaching Company, (free advertising for a very useful product). My husband bought the CDs for to use while commuting. I’ve run through all the NCIS I had TiVoed. I have to admit listening to two college professors lecture on St Augustine makes me feel very intelligent as I stare at my computer and visit blogs, read and comment from time to time. If only I could find a way to exercise and drop at the same time! I need a Wii Fit that interfaces with E-card.

I am curious, what do you do as you make your e-card rounds?

Beware the Blogger in Your Midst

“All writers are cannibals,” Joan Delmont wrote in her novel Plonk Goes the Weasel. I love this quote. I didn’t realize how accurate this observation was until I started posting a daily blog. Now the events in my life are all grist for the mill. The kids are used to this. I have used them as examples when I was teaching Bible Study and MOPS. They have some minor objection to me posting their lives on the web for the whole world to see, hence the Princess posting. There was the time that my resident tech expert objected to something I wrote that involved her and she threatened to delete my blog. I have never mentioned A Second Cup to my son’s prior girlfriend on the off chance she might come across the posts involving her, they get back together and she hates me forever. My husband didn’t like the post about nagging. I’m not going to explore why too deeply.

I have to be careful or I find myself narrating what I experience in my mind piecing together words to type down later because I post 5 times a week, 2500 words more or less and I need new material daily. My husband took me to a lovely bed and breakfast for our 25^th wedding anniversary, as we walked into the room, I started writing in my head, “The room is masculine and comfortable like the man I married…” I had to stop myself. This was not blog material even though I could get a week's worth of postings.

The same thing happened when I visited my family. I was noting details, watching faces, looking for minor conflicts that would make interesting posts. That is why I wrote so little about my visit. I was visiting family, not on a blog material gathering mission. There are lines that should not be crossed.

Where is the line between a writer's using events from her personal life to develop material to post and using other people’s lives with or without their consent?

If you know someone who writes a personal blog…beware…she may be writing in her head, gnawing on your life, even as you speak, so please…try to be interesting.