I am a Mommy, hear me blog!
Have you ever had someone read and follow your blog so closely that they felt as if they were part of your life? When you mourned over the untimely death of your favorite coffee maker, they cried right along with you? When you celebrated important potty training victories, they cheered and gave a hearty fist-pump with gusto?
If you announced that you were taking a week off for a vacation to unplug and reconnect as a family, they felt anxious until you returned? Or even tried to obtain details about your destination so they could join you? And if you missed a day because you succumbed to yet another nasty cold courtesy of the kids, they developed sympathy cold symptoms? If you felt like taking a day off from writing, they felt as if something was just slightly wrong with the universe and couldn’t get back on track no matter how hard they tried until your return.
I’m your biggest fan!
Chances are that they are slightly obsessed and you have shared so much of yourself and your family life that there is no longer a line between their life and yours. So, how would you know if you have shared too much on your mommy blog? Well, here are a few warning signs for your enjoyment.
1. The supermarket where you shop has your groceries ready and waiting for you as you walk through the automatic doors because the Manager reads your blog faithfully. The cashier is already anticipating the small mound of coupons you will surely hand her with your credit card. And the bagger has already loaded your groceries into your car before you’ve gotten your receipt.
2. Folks you have never seen before approach you on the street to ask you how the potty training is going and the kids aren’t even with you.
3. When you vacation out of the country, the locals commend you on your ability to juggle barfing babies, over worked husbands, and a tight blogging schedule.
4. Readers know more about your kid’s social calendar than you do. (Don’t forget that Little Miss has a recital at 3pm today and you still need to fix the torn hem).
Hot stuff, baby!
5. You see flyers on telephone poles at every corner begging for votes for you in the latest “Top Mommy Blogger Award.” And you didn’t put them there.
6. Free pizzas show up at your place on Friday night because fans know its Family Pizza Night and they didn’t want you to worry about feeding the kids so you could focus on putting together your next big giveaway.
7. You get invitations to stay at strangers’ houses whenever you mention you’ll be in a certain town. And they will be most upset if you don’t take them up on their offer.
8. Twitter followers keep their tweet deck open 24-7 in the off chance you might happen to send a tweet when you get up for that 2am feeding.
9. Fans have dedicated Facebook fan pages to your blog in addition to your official fan page.
10. Non-family members know the exact height, weight and shoe size of every one of your children.
11. People know that your pedigree dog likes certain types of treats that are only available at the natural foods store two towns over.
12. Odd people show up at your child’s school and offer to give them a ride home because you are running a few minutes late.
I run a ‘bunny boiler’ free blog.
Makes you think for a moment, doesn’t it? We all do it, whether we realize it or not. We share a few tid bits of our everyday life. A trip to the grocery store here. A dance class there. Before you know it, over a period of time, anyone could piece together our daily routines. Suddenly, they show up at our front porch or worse, at our children’s school.
How much is too much information to share? I know I’m going to be a little more careful about what I share from now on.