When I hire assistants for my home daycare I typically do some extensive research. Plugging an email address into Google or Facebook really brings up the most interesting finds.
One thing I always laugh at is the email address choice some of these young gals come up with. Leave it to a high school student to open up a gmail account under whatever cute and sassy name they can think up..
CutenSassy at gmail dot com.
2Hot4U at yahoo dot com.
volleyballvixen at hotmail dot com.
I sigh when I see these email addresses and think about how embarrassed they should feel handing them out to future employers and also what a pain it will be for them to change later.
You know…when they start their mom blog in ten years they can’t be littleHOTTIE at gmail dot com anymore.
Most certainly not.
Instead they will need to transition to:
mamascrazy at gmail dot com
JinxiesMom at yahoo dot com
Mom2point0h at hotmail dot com
mamadrinksheavily at msn dot com
Seriously, what’s wrong with us? Starting a blog was so cute 4 years ago when my babies were little. All the professional bloggers were all “be consistent with your branding! Your email must match your blog name!” and many of us did what we were told.
And now I’m kind of stuck with this email account that really only us bloggers understand. We don’t flinch when we hunt down an email address for an online friend. Putyourbiggirlpantieson at gmail dot com? Okay I’ll send that media kit right over!
However, I wasn’t prepared for the cute blog email address to one day land on the desk top of major brand CEOs, old non-blogging friends, and my kids school teachers.
Last week I made a hair appointment with my hair girl and she was all “Can I get your email? We like to send receipts and appointment reminders that way now!”
I hesitated…which email address do I give her??
Ultimately I chose the ONE address I actually keep open, “Okay, I’ll just spell it to you since it’s kind of…long…” ahem, “m-a-m-a-k-a-t-s-l-o-s-i-n-i-t at gmail dot com.”
“Okay…I think I got that…that’s cute! Mama Kat…Slosin It?? Is that right?”
“Oh it’s just…yes that’s exactly right.”
It’s a good thing I grew out of that embarrassing teenage stage.
Gigi says
And that is why I have two accounts – one for blogging and one for real life. Otherwise, it’s just too hard to explain.
stacey@havoc&mayhem says
Me too. I don’t want to be giving ‘havoc and mayhem’ to teachers & local businesses. It requires too much explaining. Much easier to use a version of my own name for people in person.
Mama Kat says
Is there a way to have a ‘normal’ account and have those messages forwarded in to your blogging account or do you have to actually log in to each of them everyday?
Meghan says
I know that Gmail will let you set other email accounts to foward to it. (I had an earthlink account for instance that I had forwarded to Gmail, which I set up through my Gmail account.) Easy peasy
hollow tree ventures says
Clever! If I’d thought about that, I’d have set up a blog address. I’m not crazy about my name being in my all-too-public (and private) email address, but I couldn’t see trying to keep up with two. Live and learn, eh?
stacey@havoc&mayhem says
I’m not sure. I use Window’s free mail program to download my email from gmail & my ISP provided email & my blog’s email (which is supported from gmail) & you can add as many accounts to that as you want. I never check my email online but let the software check every 30 minutes
Arnebya says
I think of this often. I only have one non-business email (and then three serious ones, two of which I need to simply give up). I have the blog address, the business not related to the blog address, the first one I started when we got internet at home (so yeah, that’s old as hell and I haven’t checked it months and it probably has cobwebs and mice and 324255345323432425537878 messages). And then there’s the play/personal one: waitimaprincess. Yeah. I tend not to give that one out anymore.
The girls’ll learn (although, maybe it’s a tad too late for whoever uses giveittomegood at yahoo dot com).
Amber says
Off to google my email address and see what pops up…yikes!
side note–whenever I see you “liked” one of my pics on fb I get all giddy and excited like we’re instant bffs. I’m such a nerd :)
Faith says
I made my email address and it was perfect for more than 7 years. My email address is just abigailesmommy. This worked out great and was so helpful for her teachers, church, and family. Unfortunately now, after almost eight years, I have another daughter. When she gets older will she be sad I don’t have one for her? Is it fair to keep the one?
Mama Kat says
Oh man that’s a tough one! I always wonder what moms do when they’ve named their blogs after their first baby and then go on to have more. I’m thinking you’ll either have to change your email address or just be content telling your other kids you chose the name before they were born. End of story. :) I wonder if they’d even notice!
Lisha - The Lucky Mom says
Every year, it gets harder and harder to embarrass me. I could change my handle to peeswhenshesneezes at yahoo dot com and it wouldn’t phase me a bit. ;-)
Mama Kat says
Pees when she sneezes! Haha! I think I need to live a few more years before I’d feel comfortable handing that email address out!
Sara says
OK … how about they really bad teenagery email addresses that you get from other Moms for the Class List … HotBabyMama AT Yahoo DOT com!!!
Mama Kat says
I’d love to get my hands on their class list of email addresses! It will reveal so much about which kids to steer my kids away from!
…as if I had any power over that whatsoever.
Maggie S. says
My daughters have ridiculous email addresses. I tried to tell them. But they simply couldn’t hear.
Mama Kat says
Oh I can’t wait to see what my kids come up with!
Jen says
My email is just letters… letters of my name all mixed up. It’s not even a word I can say to people. I like mamakatslosinit… it makes you special.
Lady Estrogen says
Hahaha. OK, so the hotmail account I opened in ’98 is named after a band – but luckily, 95% of people have never heard of that band, so it’s not terrible. I still have it – I use that strictly for e-marketers asking for my email.
Twisted Domestic Goddess says
Hahah yes there’s been a few times I’ve handed out my email twisteddomesticgoddess…and people have stopped and looked at me weird,mostly though I get oh I LOVE it!
Sarah Ruth says
I had guitarchic03 at hotmail for the longest time. It worked well for me. Then I wanted something a little more grownup and I just used my name. My blog email obviously is my blog name. I just started a new business venture and I want to have an email address just for that because my name email address gets so much junk. I don’t want to lose important emails!!
Oddyssey says
Mama Kat Slosin It… LOL I have the same issue with mine… it’s just easier to say “yes, that’s it” rather than trying to correct them.
a Book for My Daughter says
You are SO funny! Although my email does not match my blog title, I did (for some unknown reason) come up with the most ridiculous combinations of letters and numbers, and ALWAYS dread having to verbally tell it to people. I always feel like the person typing it into the computer keeps looking at me waiting for it to end. Thanks for making me laguh, Mama Kat Slosinit!
Randi says
I know sclubmama really?
Jennifer says
I signed up for the Sephora Beauty Insider thing in the store the other day, but I wasn’t sure if I had previously signed up so the clerk checked for me.
“What’s your name?” Jennifer Williams
“What’s your birthday?” 9/7/71
“Hmmm…. we have several on that day. Let’s see….” (glances at me, back to the screen, back at me, back to the screen) “Ahem… are you sexyvixen@?”
I actually busted out laughing. She suggested that I email that person and tell them they are an embarrassment to the name.
Marta says
Lol. I have my first initial and last name at gmail as my primary email but then also my blog handle at gmail. Except it couldn’t be lostandforgotten at gmail because someone had that so I had to go with lostandforgottenblog at gmail because that sounds SO awesome.
Jen says
See, I have a unique name. I’m 99.5% certain there is literally no other person on the planet with my name. My cousin even married a girl with the same first name as me, but she kept her maiden name. So it’s just me.
When I got my first email address in 1999, at 11 years old, I didn’t have a “thing”. I didn’t have a hobby or a talent or an obsession. I couldn’t be “swimmergirl87” or “pony_lover” or whatever, and I wasn’t creative enough to come up with something awesome– and I didn’t have to, because no one else has my name. No competition, no need to add a number at the end, etc.
So my entire emailing life, I’ve literally only had emails that are variations on my name. It’s kind of depressing, actually.
Julia says
I never thought of it like that. Back in high school I was Hungryeyes81 at yahoo.com how embarassing is that?! I now have 2 emails one for the blog and one for other.
Nicole @MTDLBlog says
Haha! I have three accounts – a family email, a freelance email and a blog email. The freelance and home email incorporate my last name. But, the whole thing with my blog name…at conferences people are like, where do you blog? And I’m like “Moments that Define Life” and they’re like “Moments that…huh? I didn’t quite catch that..” it’s a bit lengthy and I usually have to repeat and then I feel like I’m taking too much of their time trying to tell them my blog name….. Then there’s the twitter handle that’s an acronym…sheesh….all in hindsight!! :-)
AnnMarie says
This cracks me up. I have three accounts. It’s a pain but I don’t want teachers to know I am the queen of chaos right away. They’ll figure it out soon enough…why rush it?
Raine says
When I was young I used barbalutes from the lorax by dr. suess – its spelt wrong though. I used it for everything until I went on an interview and they thought it was barbiturates. I did not get that job.