4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: heart.
The idea of blogging as a parent is controversial in some circles. Is documenting our life as parents fair to our kids when they do not have a choice in the matter? You think you are sharing a little piece of your heart, but are we exploiting them? Are we embarrassing them? Are we setting them up to fail future job opportunities? Will Harvard see that my child put poopy fingerprints all over the wall during naptime and decide they are not cut out for a law degree?
People debate whether or not these are “our stories to tell”…and I’ve always countered that in my head with “but I’m telling MY story…they just happen to be main characters!”
Despite the hatred for the parenting niche of blogging, I continued. What began as funny toddler stories and family activities naturally gave way to my own personal narrative as the kids have gotten older. I still share the funny things they say and family activities, but I sprinkle in my other interests…reading, video making, fostering dogs, a smidge of politics perhaps. I just like to write so I don’t really see reason for me to stop, but I’ve always wondered if my kids would grow up to resent me for what I’ve shared about them.
It’s still too early to tell, but I was delighted yesterday when Maile was giggling about memories from when they were younger at dinner time. She talked about that time she wanted candy for dinner and I kept saying “no” and she finally exclaimed that I was making her so “NERVOUS” when she really meant “frustrated.” Or that time we went to the Seattle Center and she took a deep breath and was all, “OH! Just smell that country air!!” Or that time she named her piggy bank “Steady” and a little bit later could be heard talking to it, “Steady girl…steady!”
I asked her how she even remembered these stories because I honestly have no recollection of them and she said she needed family pictures for a project at school today. She got online and searched my BLOG for family pictures! She was so deep in the archives (I barely remember writing those blog posts) that she got caught up searching her own name, reading the stories, and printing pictures for her project.
I cannot even describe the relief. We all had a good laugh about the smaller versions of themselves. The stories she found never would have been retold by me because I barely remember them happening let alone the exact verbiage and cute way they said their words. What a fun little gift to all of us. And how awesome that she did not have to wait to come home and search for pictures for her project.
POINT MOMMY BLOGGERS!!!!
Fingers crossed I don’t come back and update this in five years with a story about how she was denied entrance in Harvard…