12 reasons why blogging is like having kids

Having a blog is like having kids; but without the nappies and sicking up - well usually

I have been blogging for five months. Not a particularly spectacular anniversary, but nice to take note of.

Despite it’s young life, my blog has poked its way into my world quite successfully. Its taken over a little bit. Rather like a third, unplanned child. It also happens to be a bit of a demanding one at that.

Admittedly, its without the nappy changing in the early months, but sadly still with the night-waking, though thankfully it doesn’t need to get burped regularly or sick up too much.

There are plenty of similarities between blogging and kids, so here are my twelve for starters:

1. Cause night-waking; my kids actually don’t wake me too much in the night anymore, but they most definitely used to. And Chatterbox had a bit of a bad time of it with nightmare last week, so it does still happen. But in general, they are pretty good. So imagine my annoyance at being woken by my blogging brain with ridiculous ideas about what my next post should be about? Where is the logic in that when I have beaten the toddler sleep demon?
2. Attention-grabbing; your kids need your attention, hence why I run my own behaviour charts business and am not still in my previous role as a business analyst. Perhaps over-ambitiously, I have committed to five posts a week on this blog for the business. Didn’t someone tell me not to do that? Probably, but I am a stubborn old goat, so ignored them. Result; my blogging needs a lot of attention – oops
3. Can be frustrating; this may just be me, but I find the way I handle situations I am in with the kids frustrating when I look back at them; “why did I do that, I knew it wasn’t going to help” is an oft repeated mantra. Blogging is incredibly frustrating too; I love doing it, but don’t have enough time to do what I want to when I want to. I also struggle to express myself sometimes…bit like when the kids ask me those impossible why questions
4. Results in a bit of shouting; hands up who has never raised their voice to their kids? Hands up who has never shouted at their blog, or their blog software? Point proven. Or at least I hope so otherwise perhaps that was a knock at the door from the men in white coats…
5. Wonderfully rewarding; clearly my kids are rewarding, and unless I am some kind of weird mother, they are much more rewarding than blogging. However, my blog is amazingly rewarding for me at the moment. It’s a great channel for some of my pent up creativity as I try to become a bit of a writer. As I am also a bit of a secret geek I love the statistics too…
6. Boo – surprise me; kids say the most wonderful, surprising things. In fact, I haven spoken before on this blog about my little boys wish to cloud walk, and my daughter’s worrying before her time. My blog is no different, people find it in the most amusingly bizarre ways. Google searches to locate me have even included the phrase “naked jumping.” Now I do have a post that contains that phrase, but I shudder to think how disappointed that particular searcher may have been at its content…
7. Gets a bit messy; kids get messy all the time, and quite right too. My blogging does too, mainly because it needs to look organised, but deep down I am anything but; please don’t ever look at my desk when you visit
8. Gets thought about a lot on a night out; if you go down the pub with your parent friends, you talk and think about your kids alot. They are after all part of you life. It’s natural. However, is it natural to find sneaking into your head the repeating phrase, “That would make a really good post that would.” I haven’t yet resorted to shimmying off to the loo to put the idea on my iPhone, but its probably only a matter of time
9. Helps you “meet” lovely new people; I still know most of the people that I met through being pregnant with my first child; the common ground of morning sickness, bladder weakness and general scaredness of birth is enough to make them friends for life. Blogging has opened the world of social media to me, and I have met some lovely people through it, some in person and some I am yet to meet, but very much hope to soon either at Blogcamp in London or at the MAD Blogging Awards, both of them in September
10. Scares me a little; my kids scare me, but only because I sometimes wonder how they manage with me as their mum; scatty, disorganised, and hopelessly forgetful. One day, I’ll do a Cameron and leave them in a pub. Blogging scares me because its new. New things always scare me, but I go ahead and do them anyway, because that’s the kind of girl I am. Actually, its probably quite good it scares me, it might mean I am more likely going to get it more right than wrong (I hope…)
11. Makes you look at the world very differently; kids help you see the world through their eyes. And sometimes its a truely wonderful place to be. I love their innocence, their unconditional love, and their sense of fun. Quite inspirational. Blogging does the same. After you start blogging you see the world differently. For two reasons, one I have already mentioned because you are always on the look out for a post idea, but the most important reason is because you read the blogs of other very talented people who have tough and / or amazing stories to tell you. Sometimes, you are shocked to hear these honest, but brilliant pieces of writing, but having read them your view of the world is bound to change
12. Results in far too many trips to the toilet; what the hell is she on about? Simple, having kids means you are always going to the loo. I have said this on here alot. If you read my stuff regularly, you may be forgiven for thinking I have a bit of a toilet obsession. However, blogging makes you go to the loo too. Not in a laxative sort of way though…I go there to tweet, to sneakily read other blogs, and to write down my daft ideas for new posts. Its the only place in the house I get peace from the kids. Until they need the loo again that is…

I bet there are more of them – do you have any comparisons between your kids and your blogging – do share below. Or just sympathise with me so I don’t feel like I am going a bit mad…

Note:

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

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