Today I borrow shamelessly from Landismom at the wonderful Bumblebee Sweet Potato (who also has one of my favorite names for a blog) and answer the questions she answered regarding some questions raised at BlogHer:
1. Do your kids know about your blog? If they’re too young to know, do you plan to keep it open to them as they get older?
They sort of know; Lilly and Marni are more aware that I'm writing about them than Zeke is but they all notice the pics and they're all a little taken with themselves when they see their pictures posted. To them, it's like being on TV.
As far as the second part of the question is concerned, I intend to keep up with this blog as long as I'm a parent, i.e. until the moment I shuffle off this mortal coil.
2a. If so - do you worry they may get embarrassed later? What would you do if they asked you to stop writing about them? What would you do if they wanted you to take it down all together?
I'm certain that they'll be a little embarrassed when they get older (pre-teen/teen years, embarrassed by a parent being a quality of that stage) and I intend to give them editorial prerogative at that point. My parenting style involves mutual respect and I'd certainly consider the concerns of a child who feels what I write might compromise their standing amongst peers, the world, etc. However, I'm convinced my kids think dad's a bit of a weirdo anyway.
2b. If not, what are you doing to make sure they never find it? What if they do find it?
3. Do you think our kids will appreciate the archive of their childhood? Do you wish your parents had done the same?
I started journals for each of my children soon after they were delivered. Unfortunately, my idiot brother and white-trash sister-in-law destroyed journals for two of the kids (background here when Zeke was mauled by my brother's dog) and only Lilly's journals survive. This blog takes the place of those journals to some degree (I still write personal notes to them as well as file away bits of artwork and other things) but a glimpse of their foreward footsteps is generalized here. I love that they'll be able to search archives for my chronicles of moments they may have forgotten.
Yes, I wish my parents had done the same but I don't resent them for not doing it.
4. Do you go back and re-read your past parenting milestones? Do you realize you forgot a lot?
Something I learned in school was that once I wrote something down, it was usually committed to memory. Plus, I tend to work very hard at attentiveness, to watch my children and engrave moments into my gray matter, as though an intangible etching tool moves silently through my hippocampus to tangibly implant that moment into eternity.
5. What about your children’s friends/teachers/moms-of-friends? What if they found your blog? Do you tell your child not to tell anyone about it or are they free to talk about it? Do you worry their teachers or other parents will think it’s weird?
If anything survives from my punk years it's my attitude that this is what you get, take it or leave it. I'd prefer that anyone who stumbles onto this tiny corner of the blogosphere appreciates how I obviously adore my children but I pretty much don't give a fuck what anyone thinks.
Back up The Pass - it's my Thursday - and I think I'll post again tonight. Maybe even about my kids...
2 comments:
Hey, thanks for the compliments! I feel the same way about the teen years--is there anything that a parent does that isn't mortifying to a teen?
Good Answers. I don't have kids but I would be the same way. And as for caring what others think...I had to deal with that when I first started mine. You just can't talk shit about people or do and if they don't like it tough. I don't expect anyone to like me.
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