It's Been Forever

OK, it happens each time I go to these things. I meet lots of incredible bloggers and I tell myself I will post more often! BlogHer was, what, like 6 weeks ago now. I know I should post more. Believe me, I have ideas on a daily basis - at least. I just can't seem to sit still long enough to get them typed. I get to the computer and check my mail (1st mistake), after sorting through the garbage and the good stuff, I usually pop on over to Facebook (2nd HUGE mistake). About an hour or 2 or 3 later, I am ready to post... The problem is by then, I either need to drop off or pick up a kid somewhere or, more likely, I have completely forgotten what I wanted to post (if I even remember I was going to post at all).

On the bright side, the time I spend on Facebook has reconnected me with so many people from my past. It's like a big old reunion right here in my house with no schedules to arrange and no airline tickets to purchase. I love it. I've found high school friends, BBYO friends, camp friends, friends of friends. I even discovered my own cousin was engaged because I saw her talking about it on Facebook. How crazy is that?

Oh yeah... So, it's been forever since I posted and lots has been happening. BlogHer with Mom Road Trip, a new season with LCS, back to school events, the DNC right here, close to home and some new discoveries about communicating on line. Like Devra said, it's a bit overwhelming to even figure out where to start!

I won't start at the beginning (too long ago to remember), or at the end (even though that would be easy). I want to start by sharing the discoveries I have made along the way. Regardless of where I am, who I am with, or what I am doing, the same question is asked of me over and over again, "What do you blog about?" It probably shouldn't catch me off guard but it does. It catches me just as off guard as, "What do you do?" and "Wow, you wrote a book, did you always want to be a writer?"

These all sound like reasonable questions to ask someone at a blogger conference, blogger meet up or any other blogger gathering. The problem is I never considered myself a "blogger." Yes, I have a blog. Yes, I write on the blog. But, as I have already said, I don't write very often - at least not as often as I feel I should. I always thought bloggers were people who posted daily (at the very least)! You know what I have learned over the past couple of months? That simply is not true. Sure, there are those who post daily, heck, it seems like hourly, but there are also those of us who post less often. The reasons for this are as varied as the people I have met. Up until this point in time, my response has been something along the lines of, "Well, umm, you see, I have a blog but it's only because I wrote a parenting book and then my co-author and I started a speaking business supported by a web site and our web master told us to start a blog." If you have ever heard that lame response from me please replace it with the following:

Devra and I blog at parentopia.com. As parenting professionals, our blog definitely talks about parenting issues but we also blog about anything that we believe may be of interest to parents or others involved with the care of children. It may be new born coping strategies, school topics, political, social, fun, serious, kid full or kid free. Occasionally, we even blog about things we find blog worthy at the moment even if they have nothing at all to do with parents or kids! Just come look, it's too hard to explain.

As for the answers to the other 2 questions I mentioned, they haven't changed much...

1. What I do depends on the day of the week, the time of the day and the season.

2. No, I never aspired to be a writer. My BA is in Adolescent Behavior and Sexuality and my post graduate work is in health care system reimbursement and early childhood. Writing is just something I do and I am a bitch of an editor (just ask my kids).

I suppose this post would fall into the "nothing to do with parents or kids" category so we'll file it under, "a personal revelation I thought I would share" and call it good. I fully intend to post soon (a relative term) on other recent events I mentioned and even share some things I am degreed in and have put to use as the mom of 2 adolescents. Now you're all interested aren't you. So y'all come back soon now, ya' hear!

Parentopia: The Return

Re-entering the day to day of our lives after spending almost a month engaging with our online community of colleagues and friends is the reason why Aviva and I have been on hiatus. Later this month we'll be posting more about what we've been up to. Why promise this week when we know better? Life is way too hectic right now to promise that! We will write a recap of our summer of (cyber)Love. Not that kind of cyber love, not the kind you need to chase the children out of the room to read online. We'll be posting about the people we met on the road as well as those we connected with, and in many cases reconnected with, at BlogHer. We may have a few posts about it, now that I start thinking about all of the stuff we need to recap.

When I think about blogging about all of it, I start to feel the same kind of angst surfacing whenver I get an invite to one of those photo scrapbooking parties. I know I have a ton of photos, deteriorating because I am not keeping my family heirlooms in some sort of acid free container which could withstand nuclear fall out. And I know they are not alphabetized nor in chronological order and I've even written on the back of the photos using a...wait for it...magic marker and/or ball point pen.

When I get that kind of invite, it feels like I am boarding a handbasket waiting to be sent South at any moment. And I'm not talking a trip to New Orleans either. I'm not in any way dissing those who partake in the "S" word as my friend Lisa calls it when she is around me. I just can't seem to get over my sense of being overwhelmed with so many pictures to organize. It just seems like I might never be able to get it all done. Most assuredly if you are a person who scrapbooks, my sample page I made once at a party would drive you to drink.

BUT...

I did get some valuable advice from one of the "S" word consultants who felt my pain. She told me, "Instead of concentrating on the oldest stuff, begin with the most recent and work your way back. You'll build confidence that way and won't feel as overwhelmed." As hokey as it might sound, that advice has stuck with me. Sure, I never have applied it to organizing family photos, but I have applied it to other areas of my life and it's been very helpful.

With this in mind, I'm going to begin catching up with blogging, by beginning with the most recent goings on:

Our blogmiga Michelle Lamar's book "The White Trash Mom Handbook" hit the shelves yesterday. We've been reading her blog White Trash Mom for what seems like forever. It's interesting to read some of the posts about the title of her book, even Michelle feels conflicted about it too, because there is a contingent of people who think the term "White Trash" is tantamount to a racial slur of a particular group of people. What do you think? Is it tongue-in-cheek humor or is it now no longer PC? The book is filed under "Humor" BTW and we like it because it offers up more reasons for parents to enjoy parenting than feel tormented by it. Whether or not you think the name of the book is offensive, open the book and read it. It's chock full of reassurance that parenthood is not perfectionhood!

I posted about my plane trip back to The DC. If you want to read what it was like for me to sit next to the founding member of the New Mile High Club, head on over to DC Metro Moms and read "Airport Security: The Coke you drink? Don't even think about it. The Coke you snort? No problem."

While at BlogHer, I moderated a session called,"The Commercialization of the Momosphere; Ethics, Policy and Outreach." iMedia has an article about it; "It's a bloggers world" written by Nanette Marcus. Twas my first time moderating any kind of panel discussion and I'll do a power wash of it later this month. Keep in mind that Aviva will tell you I am my own toughest critic, so much so that almost any interview we do together Aviva refuses to let me watch more than once because I tend to be hyper critical of myself. I always see room for improving, room to grow, but admittedly Aviva is right to protect me from myself. We all need friends like her to keep us in check from time to time.

Please join the online rally for Paid Sick Days. It's about time our nation recognized everyone should be able to take a day, or more, off in order to recover from their own illness and/or provide care to those they care about! C'mon people, let's rally!

And I'll round out this post with a shout out to our friend Laurel for her awesome post about her barfing child and the Yak Pak*, which we dedicate to another blogmiga Lindsay Lebresco from Graco. Lindsay admitted she needs a Yak Pak ,not for her offspring, for herself. Just tryin' to help a mother out, ya know.

We're gonna get crack-a-lackin' on catching up. One blog post at a time so stay tuned!

*We are not sponsored by Yak Pak or have any other kind of relationship with them other than thinking the name is hysterically clever. We actually know Lindsay and are not affiliated with Graco either. Party on...