Amy Called Me a Geek
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I spent the morning yesterday at Amy's house hosting a private Travel Tuesday just for her. She's trying to plan a fabulous--and I mean FABULOUS--family vacation for her crew next summer and, can you believe it?!, she's never been on Trip Advisor.
Gasp!
So I went down there to give her a private tutorial on navigating the wonders of travel websites and their forums.
Plus I brought cherry danishes from the little bakery in our neighboring town, and Amy makes the best coffee in a French press, so that was a definite benefit.
So we got to talking about my blog (wow--it looks so BIG and so GREEN on Amy's new Mac!) and about all that stuff I seem to be into these days. Amy's not so much into it, but she's a friend and she listens to me babble on about it.
This morning she sent me this post in an email that said, "Hey, you're not alone!"
Curiosity fully piqued, I clicked on the link to find an article from BBC News titled "The Rising Power of Geek Mums." (It was BBC News, remember?)
Well, the article was interesting. Something about some major techno conference that was recently held in Austin. I had read a little about it on Robin's blog, but didn't really think that much about the conference--just not my thing, I guess.
The article interviewed a couple of bloggers who attended the conference who talked about how great this blogging world is and about how many wonderful new friends they have made through it all. They talked about how their motivation to start blogging was basically to counter the boredom and loneliness the felt as mothers.
Hmmmm.
Now my curiosity was really piqued.
Sure, I've met a few people through the blog. A couple I'd call "friends" . . . sort of. But that wasn't my motivation for starting in this.
Nor was boredom. Or loneliness.
My life was pretty full before I started blogging.
I guess for me, blogging filled a void. It gave me a creative outlet that I find very relaxing.
The end of the article gave a couple of quotes from a woman that, I have to say, shocked me somewhat. You can read the article yourself, but here's a bit of what she had to say.
Stuck? At home? Gee, when my kids were little I felt like I was hardly ever home.
And, referring to another blogger:
Thankless? Maybe. Horrible? Some days. Awful? Never.
This is the final paragraph of the article, and it leaves a bit of a bad impression. You'd think someone was holding a gun to the heads of these women and making them stay home with their children. Wasn't it their choice?
I felt sad as I finished reading this article. Sad that there are mothers of young children out there who wholeheartedly resent where they're at in life. Sad that they feel trapped. Sad that they hate their role so much that they think it's a "thankless, horrible, awful job that nobody should actually have to do for free."
Now, believe me, I had my days when I felt like that when my girls were small. The days seemed to drag, and I had my moments when I thought I was trapped too.
I've stepped back from those labor-intensive days a bit--my girls are older now. And now that I can see the young women they are becoming, I can say that those tough days were worth it.
Rather than being a worthless job, I'd say it's priceless.
How about you? What are your thoughts about the article?
Gasp!
So I went down there to give her a private tutorial on navigating the wonders of travel websites and their forums.
Plus I brought cherry danishes from the little bakery in our neighboring town, and Amy makes the best coffee in a French press, so that was a definite benefit.
So we got to talking about my blog (wow--it looks so BIG and so GREEN on Amy's new Mac!) and about all that stuff I seem to be into these days. Amy's not so much into it, but she's a friend and she listens to me babble on about it.
This morning she sent me this post in an email that said, "Hey, you're not alone!"
Curiosity fully piqued, I clicked on the link to find an article from BBC News titled "The Rising Power of Geek Mums." (It was BBC News, remember?)
Well, the article was interesting. Something about some major techno conference that was recently held in Austin. I had read a little about it on Robin's blog, but didn't really think that much about the conference--just not my thing, I guess.
The article interviewed a couple of bloggers who attended the conference who talked about how great this blogging world is and about how many wonderful new friends they have made through it all. They talked about how their motivation to start blogging was basically to counter the boredom and loneliness the felt as mothers.
Hmmmm.
Now my curiosity was really piqued.
Sure, I've met a few people through the blog. A couple I'd call "friends" . . . sort of. But that wasn't my motivation for starting in this.
Nor was boredom. Or loneliness.
My life was pretty full before I started blogging.
I guess for me, blogging filled a void. It gave me a creative outlet that I find very relaxing.
The end of the article gave a couple of quotes from a woman that, I have to say, shocked me somewhat. You can read the article yourself, but here's a bit of what she had to say.
"She [the woman being interviewed] said that stuck at home with the children is something that many mothers had found led to feelings of loneliness - but that they were now able to find support and friendship online."
Stuck? At home? Gee, when my kids were little I felt like I was hardly ever home.
And, referring to another blogger:
"She added that she felt being a mother is a 'thankless, horrible, awful job that nobody should actually have to do for free - but we do. So blogging is our outlet.'"
Thankless? Maybe. Horrible? Some days. Awful? Never.
This is the final paragraph of the article, and it leaves a bit of a bad impression. You'd think someone was holding a gun to the heads of these women and making them stay home with their children. Wasn't it their choice?
I felt sad as I finished reading this article. Sad that there are mothers of young children out there who wholeheartedly resent where they're at in life. Sad that they feel trapped. Sad that they hate their role so much that they think it's a "thankless, horrible, awful job that nobody should actually have to do for free."
Now, believe me, I had my days when I felt like that when my girls were small. The days seemed to drag, and I had my moments when I thought I was trapped too.
I've stepped back from those labor-intensive days a bit--my girls are older now. And now that I can see the young women they are becoming, I can say that those tough days were worth it.
Rather than being a worthless job, I'd say it's priceless.
How about you? What are your thoughts about the article?
