'The one thing I know is that I know nothing'
To paraphrase Socrates, ‘The one thing I know about parenting is that I know nothing’.
It has been suggested to me a lot over the years to start blogging which is a wonderful
compliment 💕. However, what held me back was ultimately the criticism that bloggers face when they are just trying to be honest and open up their lives.
The negative things I would read, the assumption that mummy bloggers are a dime a dozen and seeing how some women got verbally slaughtered for what they wrote really had me at a standstill. Could I deal with that? Do I want to put myself out there and risk being ripped to shreds? I started working on a blog site and stopped many times…
However, as time has gone on and as I have aged I realised something. Not everyone will like me but I'm ok with that. Also, not everyone will despise me either, that right there is my target audience haha! (thanks to those that actually think I'm ok😅😘)
Mum bloggers are not a dime a dozen, well I don't think so anyway. We all have different kids and experiences, therefore have different things write about.
When I was just 26 with my first born, no other friends with older kids (although I did know 7 other fantastic ladies in my mother’s group, it was still the blind leading the blind🙈😂😅). I wish I had found this little community sooner.
The vast majority of women opening up their lives here want to help people. And it's quite honestly true and something I have witnessed.
My mind really changed on starting the blog one night when I thought back to me, new mum me, up at 2am feeding, enjoying my baby but also feeling quite alone. What if I could just help one girl like that. What if i could help pregnant me and give her some type of insight into motherhood. What if I make another mum (or dad) feel confident going back to uni becuse of If what I share?
What I what write could make one person not feel so alone. What if I could help a whole bunch of people? That would be amazing.
I am not here for free stuff or 'Instafame'. If I wanted to do that I would have used my already very established business page and used that as my platform. But my blog serves a different purpose to my business and I'm interested in making genuine connections here. I heavily monitor my page for creeps and block anyone I don't think is ok. I'd rather have the numbers go down than risk a creeper being here with us. As echoed by a lot of other reps and bloggers a like.
Which brings me to my next point. Through all of this blogging how do I keep my babies safe?
Am I exposing them for my own personal gain? I don’t want that to be the case but they are a huge part of me how do I not share them? There are obvious perks that come with having a successful blog. For me that is in a professional sense. I am learning a lot about marketing and business while I study and this blog gives me the ability to put a lot of the things I learn into practice. From video editing skills (a possible vlog channel may happen in the future), to networking, to just seeing that I can build and manage a website all show skills for a future career, which I will work hard to earn. Maybe one day I'll have the blog serve as an addition to my resume. One spot to find a collection of my writing.
So how do I keep these girls of mine safe?
This new way of living online is still something we are all trying our best to navigate.
This little Insta community looks out for one another. It can be a really great place to be, we share a joke and advice and support one another. We also share suspect accounts that should be blocked and reported. We monitor heavily but it's obviously not fool proof.
It seems however, sadly no matter what you're doing, whether you use Insta or Facebook privately, at a park or public place, even a school, there are creeps everywhere. After chatting to a few mum bloggers their thoughts seem to be the same as mine (thank you to the gorgeous @thenotsoperfectmum and the ever lovely @poppyleehp for your chats with me about this💕💕.
We try to be as safe as we can. We know our audience, don't post revealing or suggestive pictures, don't post location or landmarks. Again, not fool proof but we can only be as careful as we can.
During the week, I went to a school interview for my eldest starting prep and was floored at the fact the school website was public and they also had a public twitter feed. I was asked to sign the consent form so they could take pictures of Audrey, if say she got an award, to put up on the site (to clarify it is actually a really fabulous school to their credit). This may sound hypocritical but I said no. Both admin ladies looked at me cockeyed. They said most people say yes and sign the form. It's ok that I said no by Audrey would be excluded from the photo all together. Well that ok by me. #sorryauds
Most of my photos here are of me and me with my kids for a reason, my face is hopefully enough of a deterrent. I obviously never post where we live, where they will go to school or any sensitive info. I am in control here of what I expose. The school website shows kids in the newsletter, in uniform and their name and class. The school’s location is obviously easily found. For those reasons, I said no to the media consent form.
It's sad that we must think like this. That we can't trust the world we live in with our most valuable. But it goes to show is anyone really that safe online, blogging, repping or not?
Food for thought anyway.
Until Next Time,
Kirsty. xxx
