(This entry is a follow-up to this one. If you want to answer the questions on your blog, go ahead and send me the link and I’ll add it to the list.)

First? My answers
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?
LilZ knows about my blog and reads it when I point him to a particular entry, or when he’s bored. I just assume he’ll read every entry. If I wouldn’t want him to read it? I put it on VOX and mark it as Friends Only. (Doesn’t that make you want to join VOX? I have plenty of invites left!)

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 do worry about the Embarrassment Factor. I am going to say what so many others said in that I just hope I have raised him to understand and value the ability to be able to life at yourself. I don’t post anything I think would hurt him, but I’m sure one day he may find some stories more embarassing than funny. Mainly I worry he’ll think I shouldn’t write about things like boob sweat, but as it is now? We are a pretty open family and I bitch about boob sweat out loud, and I’m sure he’d actually rather me save that one for the blog.

3. Do you think our kids will appreciate the archive of their childhood? Do you wish your parents had done the same?
God, I really hope so. I really hope he values this as an archive. It is a huge motivator in doing it. I’m too lazy and impatient to be a good scrapbooker, but this? This I can do. I hope he and maybe even his kids enjoy it.

4. Do you go back and re-read your past parenting milestones? Do you realize you forgot a lot?
Yes. I re-read a lot and Yes. I’ve forgotten LOADS MORE than I’ve remembered.

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?
I have never told LilZ not to tell people about the site because in reality? I’m not too scandalous on it. HOWEVER, I am so open about how I am so not a church-goer, and so many around here are, I worry that someone who doesn’t understand my humor would be offended. All of that said? I think he understands who would be okay to tell and who might not appreciate the jokes about going to Hell.

Other Bloggers Contributing to our Mommy Blogging Panel (via their own blogs)

Wacky Mommy

Michele

Margalit

Shash

MamaSutra

Jennifer (The Other Georgia)

kristyk

Bethiclaus

Keltybug

Mrs. CPA

Leah

Moogie’s World

countrymom

Other Bloggers Contributing to our Mommy Blogging Panel (via my comments on the last entry)

RisibleGirl
My 23 and 24 year old ‘kids’ do know about my blog, and don’t mind that I write about them from time to time. They read my blog, as do their girlfriends, although it’s a good thing my oldest’s last girlfriend DIDN’T read my blog.

There are some topics that I won’t blog about because they have a right to their private life. Doesn’t mean I don’t yack about it in private with my gal pals! Sheesh- boys and the things they do…

I *wish* I had my blog when my kids were little, but Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet (I kid, I kid…) Sigh…

I know they’d love to have the stuff they did when they were little all written down and saved somewhere. I don’t think they would have appreciated it in the, say, 14-18 year-old years, but now they really like it when I tell stories of pen caps up their nose and stuff like that.

For what it’s worth, I read a lot of mommy blogs because I love little kids and babies. There are some mommy blogs that make me cringe for the kid when they grow up, but yours isn’t one of them. You write with such love and respect for your kids, I know that they’ll treasure every word

Ida
My son is too young to know about my blog, but I’m sure he will know about it as he gets older and I’m sure it will embarrass him, but I’ll just tell him to get over it. It’s an outlet for me and the family loves it. (I grew up in a small town and by family I mean actual family and every one from my hometown.)

I do wish my parents had done something similar and hope he appreciates it one day.

I also occasionally re-read my posts, mainly to look at pictures of my son so small. (Bah, I can’t believe he is becoming a real boy already.)

Also, pretty much all my friends know about my blog since I use it to keep everyone up on Thomas’ life. I write about the ones I know won’t mind, ask the ones I’m not sure about, and don’t write about the ones that wouldn’t like it.

coolbeans
My kids know I have a website. But they’re not very interested. I was talking to my husband about my blog one day and one of my kids piped up, “You mean that one…’cool beans’?” I’ve told them we don’t really talk about it a lot because it’s like my diary and I want to be in charge of who knows about it. I’m lucky they’re disinterested.

I don’t talk about my kids a ton on my blog so some of the later questions don’t quite fit me. I hope that what I do write is fair and more about my side of the situation than theirs. Alice (Finslippy) said something about writing about her experience of Henry and less about just Henry. (LeahPeah interview, I think.) I don’t always have that in my head when I write something about my kids, but that’s what I hope I’ll do.

I mostly appreciate being able to look back at last month in my blog archives and confirm that we did take a kid to the ER that day. I use my blog for that too much. “Uh, what’s this bill for?” “Wait - I’ll check my blog.”

Cathy
In the beginning, only my husband knew. Then my brothers and my husnand’s brother were told and they created their own blogs. Then, somebody blabbed to my parents. That wigged me out a LOT. I got over it (mostly). Now I have started my two teens blogging and they both know about my blog. Since it is mostly about me, they don’t care and don’t read it. I’m not taking it down for anyone else, but I do use password-protection when I’m just venting.

Floyd
I’m not really sure if I fall into the “mommyblogging” category as I seem to be a bit different. I am raising my 16 year old sister (lovingly referred to as the “POD” or Princess of Darkness).

I write about her quite a lot so I thought I might comment on a few of your questions.

No, she does not know that I blog. I don’t even mention the word “blog” to her and fervently hope she does not stumble across it.

I write about some very personal issues regarding her and I do get concerned about invading her privacy. However, it clearly doesn’t stop me. I do write under a pseudonym but I am not completely anonymous as several friends follow my blog.

If the POD was to ask me to stop writing about her, I would reluctantly comply with her wishes but I don’t know that I would wipe out my previous work entirely.

I hope one day that she is stable and mature enough to be told about my writings. I have this little dream where she’ll look back and chuckle at her teenage years and my record of them. But that is probably just wishful thinking!

And good god, NO, I hope none of her friends’ parents EVER find about her weirdo sister who writes bizarre things for all to read.

Jessica
I’m having my baby tomorrow - a baby will shoot from some part of my body tomorrow - OH MY GOD, crap! I recently started up a blog, again, and haven’t fully gotten into the swing of it, but I started it so I had some way to document at least the first year of our lives together. I think tonight I will post about how excited/nervous/anxious I am feeling today and how much I can’t wait to have myself torn in half just to meet her.

i hope I am able to stick with it better this time, as at least this time I have more motivation for keeping it going. Whereas in the past I blogged because I was bored and wanted to tell my friends about how bored I was all day long, and blogging was more fun than an email, and I got to clog the internet with mindless stuff about me

I hope it’s something that has enough substance to it that she will eventually want to read it and I will want her to read it, and maybe one day she will thank me for sharing what life was like with her, or at least be thankful that she has a record of how much I screwed up when we were first learning how to be a mom , dad, and a kid together; thereby proving she needs to write off therapy as a medical necessity. And yes, I do wish my mom had done something similar. I ask her now “What was I like as a baby” and her response is often “Oh, I don’t know - baby-like. you cried, you pooped, you didn’t poop more than you’d poop though, you’d eat at odd times, never when I’d like you to…you made me crazy, but I loved you anyway.” I want to be able to tell our little girl a little more than she had abnormal bowels and she ate on her own terms, and I loved her in spite of those things.

I haven’t shared my link with anyone yet as I am still getting my bearings with what I want to say down. I still feel like it is just for me so i can get out all my nervous blogging jitters…stupid, i know. And also, because I don’t’ post as much as I’d like to right now. And I know having a baby around frees up a world of time (hahaha) but I think having her will inspire me, and make me want to document things more frequently. Right now I feel like all I say is “come out baby” and “i ate this much today” or “i didn’t do a damn thing I wanted to do today” and I have a feeling that a year from now I really won’t care that I ate two packages of Krimpets and fell asleep for three hours. Well, maybe I WILL care, but then I will cry because days of three hour long naps will probably be a thing of the past that i will long for, and those two packs of krimpets are why none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit anymore.

When I feel ready to share my blog, I will - until then though, I’m keeping it under wraps - it’s like my own little online diary. If people stumble across it, fine - but I’m not advertising it until I’m ready for all the pains that can go along with blogging…(so, maybe never?)

I love reading other “mommy-blogs” it has given me a glimpse into what life might be like, and what type of things I want to document, or not document in my own blog. Sure I’ll share the embarrassing stories, but mainly I want to capture the little stuff that you know you’ll forget…like how you knew it would be a hard job, but never, ever expected it to be quite like THIS…

31 Girl
1. My kids are too young to know/care about my blog. It would be neat to let them know about my blog one day so they can think their mom is way cool.

2a. I could see where they would be embarassed. If they asked me to take it down I probably would but then start another one that they didn’t know about and just not mention them - altough it would suck.

3. Yes, they better appreciate the archive of their lives!! I put a lot into this stuff! I so wish that my parent’s could have done this for me.

4. I forget everything.

5. I think I would feel kind of weird knowing that other people like that read my blog. I don’t really care people reading it - I just don’t want to come off as being lame or stupid or some mom trying to be cool (although I so don’t have to try, you know…). It kind of freaks me out that my mom will occasionally read it - but the bottom line is that it is mine and I should be able to do what I want. Unfortunately I am such a people pleaser and I don’t want to offend anyone…

Emily
My daughter is obviously to young to know about my site but I do intend to share with her what I have written. I began my site to keep my friends and family in the loop of my life as they live hours away from me. But then both of my parents were diagnosed with Cancer and it morphed into something new. Now that I am a Mom, I enjoy the connections that I have made with other Moms. I’ve enjoyed looking through my archives and reliving some of the moments I have already forgotten about, especially those early days of learning to be a Mom and living with a newborn. I also wrote a lot about my pregnancy which helped when I went to do my daughters Scrapbook as I marked each pregnancy milestone. I do hope my daughter appreciates all of the memories that I kept for her. Growing up, my parents have very few tangible items from my childhood. I have held tightly to the few things that they did have. I vowed to give my kids more. I have a memory box for my daughter, scrapbooks full of stories of life before she came, and of course my site. I began all this journaling when I was 12 years old, I have always been ahead of my time!

callistawolf
I agree, I think that discussing the “controversy” gave those who bash mommy blogging too much credit. It was a shame it went the way it did… maybe we can change that for BlogHer 2007?

1. I think my older son knows about my blog. But does he care? Naw. I don’t think he really knows what a blog IS anyhow. But as he gets older then yes, he’ll be aware of it.

2a. He may be embarassed. But that’s a parent’s job… to embarass her child. I wouldn’t stop writing, but I might stop including certain things if they made him uncomfortable. But I will never, ever take down my blog unless its something *I* want to do.

3. I think it would have been cool, to have something I could go back and look at and see that HEY, I did that to my parents too. It might have been cool, it might have been creepy. I think any sort of archive of someone’s life is a good thing to have, far more than it being a bad thing.

4. I haven’t been blogging for super long, but already I’ve gone back and read things that I’d already forgotten and I’m very glad to have the opportunity to note things down “for posterity”. Blogging captures the emotion of the moment more than anything else (such as photos) so it’s really awesome to be able to re-experience that emotion.

5. I doubt Harry will ever advertise that I have a blog.. but if they find it.. they find it. I won’t tell him NOT to tell anyone, I’ll leave that up to him. I’d hate to think of soemone using it as ammo against him (in a bullying sort of manner), so that’s a tough one. But I definitely don’t worry about someone thinking it’s weird. That’s their problem if they’re that closed-minded.