Never piss off the Mommybloggers
A few weeks ago, as I stood in front of nearly 450 tech nerds for Ignite Boulder, ready to present “Why Mommybloggers Such and What We Can Learn From Them,” I wasn’t all that nervous. OK, maybe a leeeetle. But I knew the people in that room were not nearly as invested in the topic as those who would read it when I hit “publish” for the post on my blog. THAT is when I was really nervous.
And I have to say, the comments online stayed really positive. Most people got what I was trying to say. They heard me when I prefaced that I was certainly among the worst of the sucking mombloggers, because I am a combination of all of them. I talk about poop, I think I’m perfect, I complain about my kid, I have bling all over my blog, I yammer on about nothing – and yes, I make a *little* money while doing it. Total. mommy. suckitood.
But some people *didn’t* catch that message and told me about it via email. LOUDLY. And ohhh. *OUCH.*
For about 5 minutes.
Because if anyone knows me, I like to laugh. I like to laugh at myself, and at others. Sure I don’t want to be mean-spirited or hurt anyone’s feelings, but if you can’t laugh at yourself once in a while – what’s the point, right? And come on, A LOT of what we talk about on mommyblogs is FUNNY. A lot of HOW we talk about it FUNNY. [Um, intentionally or not.]
So, I think I am going to have to revise the title of this post.
“Piss Off The Mommybloggers Sometimes. Cause It’s Funny.”
Have you ever ticked off people with a post? Or had backlash offline?
I’m afraid to answer and tempt fate.
But I think you did a great job with this presentation. You made me think and laugh, always a great combination.
Have I ever! I guess you’re not supposed to call out your brother (on your blog) for having ignored his mother on her birthday. Whoopsie! Oh, and grudges are HUGE in my family.
I definitely have — most often on the topic of teen parents. I won’t go any further than that, though. No need to get the fire started again.
I’m for occasionally setting off people just to get them thinking again. Or at the very least, point out which people *don’t* think. That way, I can avoid them!
Wow, you are brave! I think Mommy bloggers are so desperate for a place to vent that they do commit all those sins and more! (I personally loathe two things:1) complaining about age appropriate child behavior and 2) saying awful things about your spouse.)
Sorry about the terse email – that just sucks.
Oh boy, I think that was what my blog was all about for awhile…I loved the debates, the posts that polarized, etc. I love those topics because they made people (me included) think and they drew people out of lurking to generate discussions about interesting topics. I’m a med school grad, taking time off to be home with my 3 under 3, so I wrote about stuff like circumcision, vaccinations, etc. I also have 2 awesome boys adopted from Vietnam, so the issue of gender selection in adoption was near and dear to my heart. I still like to shake it up every now and then and post about controversial stuff, but I think parenting has made me slightly less judgmental and far more aware of my own limitations and suckiness, so I tend to approach some of the topics differently…at least I THINK I do, most of the time!
Great post and presentation, btw!
I have found it tougher to not piss people off. But maybe I only post when there is something that tweaks my gourd enough for me to get off my duff and say something.
It get’s tricky when you tick off the people that you also have an offline personal relationship with. It’s one thing to annoy a person halfway around the planet who you only communicate with through a few blog comments, but when you show up to their house for a holiday or birthday party (or home for dinner) things can get a bit dicey.
But hey! Isn’t that what communication is all about? Sharing ideas, learning new points of view, getting to know people? It’s great to see that people around the world have different points of view than me, no matter how misguided and confused they might be.
Right? Right? Who’s with me! Bueller? Bueller?
Learning to allow someone else to speak their point of view no matter how much you disagree with them is a skill that should be taught in every school from day 1. Hello? Is this thing on? Where did everybody go?
I respect you for speaking your mind. One thing I learned as a blogger is never to listen to the haters. People will inevitably leave angry comments and you just have to ignore it. Always keep in mind how many positive comments you get!
My blog: http://www.collegehunksblog.com
Well, I do edit myself as to not piss off family members. HOWEVER my MIL got it from me good recently. The beauty is that she said, “I don’t have Time to Sit Around All Day On My Computer.” as I was posting. She got blogged aout the next day!