Momblogging

January 29, 2005 5:15 PM

Momblogging. The NY Times (reg. required) looks at some blogging mamas. As someone who's regularly losing friends to the new-parent netherworld of suburbia and early nights, I had previously had little interest in reading about childrearing. I checked out Bad Mother because I'm a fan of the author's husband - the novelist Michael Chabon - and realised it was a hoot. I also like the Pessoptimist. So what other good bringing-up-baby blogs are out there?
posted by liam (23 comments total)

I can't imagine there's a bringing-up-baby blog better than Heather Armstrong's dooce.com.
posted by 327.ca at 5:20 PM on January 29, 2005

Trixie! Gotta love the geek dads.
posted by fatllama at 5:29 PM on January 29, 2005

My book (Mother Shock) was mentioned in the piece -- though the reporter neglected to link to my blog, and not a single quote from our nearly two-hour interview about parents who blog made it in there! Dooce and Mimi Smartypants are great; I also enjoy the writing on This Woman's Work and Chez Miscarriage. I gave a keynote address at a recent conference on motherhood and feminism about just this topic, the "explosion" of parents writing about parenthood -- my talk was titled "The Secret Life of Mothers: Maternal Narrative, Momoirs, and the Rise of the Blog." It was excerpted on MJ Rose's publishing blog here .
posted by mothershock at 5:31 PM on January 29, 2005

*coughcheckmyuserpagecough*
posted by FunkyHelix at 5:37 PM on January 29, 2005

http://www.ironycentral.com/babymain.htmlIrony Central writes a monthly dispatch, first called The Story About the Baby and later changed to http://www.ironycentral.com/babymain.html>The Story About the Toddler. It's always riotously funny. It's being published in book form later this year, I think.
posted by gd779 at 5:39 PM on January 29, 2005

Crap, I don't know what happened there. Those first two links were supposed to be this: Irony Central.
posted by gd779 at 5:40 PM on January 29, 2005

Don't miss the sometimes very funny and often baby focused defective yeti.
posted by portage at 6:05 PM on January 29, 2005

A Little Pregnant is an infertility/parenting blog (just had her first child two months ago).
posted by annathea at 6:49 PM on January 29, 2005

Mortimer'sMom is one I really like- infertility/international adoption blog.
http://mortimersmom.diaryland.com/
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:07 PM on January 29, 2005 [1 favorite]

Hate to be sour grapes, but when I posted a year ago about the blogger baby boom, MeFites grumbled, "This is discussion-worthy in some way?" and " Oh who the hell cares" and best of all: "Statistically insignificant."

...And now here we are a year later with the NYTimes telling us that those same bloggers had babies and are writing about it. To those who grumbled a year ago: PISS OFF.

And, getting over myself for a moment: it's awesome that these fantastic writerly parents are getting some kudo. I read almost all the sites mentioned daily and thoroughly enjoy them. Hurrah!
posted by arielmeadow at 7:17 PM on January 29, 2005

"I can't imagine there's a bringing-up-baby blog better than Heather Armstrong's dooce.com."

I'm proud to be a daily reader of Heather's. I've told many about her site. Interesting, entertaining and great pics.
posted by mikeinclifton at 7:29 PM on January 29, 2005

Normally, mommy-blogs and teenager-blogs bore me to tears (probably because I am neither a mommy nor a teen). However, I think Ayelet Waldman is a smart, interesting woman and I'm eager to start reading her blog. Thanks for the link, liam.
posted by nevafeva at 7:51 PM on January 29, 2005

Oh good lord--any new mother that has time to BLOG should be summarily shot. I'm due on March 21st and I can't imagine even having computer time after the little darling makes her debut.
posted by PuppyCat at 8:09 PM on January 29, 2005

The best reply to the "who the hell cares?" comments in arielmeadow's thread came from troutfishing:

Isn't blogging one of the few forms of writing - short pithy comments requiring 1-60 minutes - that syncs up well with the rythyms of new babies which need constant care?

I suppose they could write Haiku, or poetry. But why not put that online as well ?

I'd think that Blogdom would be swamped by blogging babyminding new parents.

mothershock's speech linked above makes a similar point among many others (and would have made a much better first link than the Times article, had I been aware of it). Parenting makes good material for good bloggers; it took the NYTimes to bring that to the attention of this unparent, a year or three late.
posted by liam at 8:14 PM on January 29, 2005

edible.nu
posted by Thoth at 8:25 PM on January 29, 2005

The infertility and pregnancy blogosphere is huge and helpful.

Already mentioned above are two of my favorites: A Little Pregnant and Chez Miscarriage.

Also worth a gander: So Close (she's recently delivered twins), The Naked Ovary (she's moved on to adoption), and Leery Polyp (newly pregnant but still terrified).

I love their honesty and their dark, dark senses of humor.
posted by OhPuhLeez at 8:36 PM on January 29, 2005

I love mimismartypants, as mentioned above, but my only daily blog read is the exceptional Harri3t and her spynotes. She's funny and reflective and very smart.
posted by manduca at 10:49 PM on January 29, 2005

Money quote:

"People who get married, especially people in their 30's, and then have kids, are used to being the center of attention"

Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily. In fact, mommy (or daddy!) blogs seem great, just as garden blogs and car blogs and cat blogs are all great and hopefully indexed by google so that when I have a problem with my baby/garden/car/cat, I'll have somewhere to start looking. Cuz, after all, it's all about me.

Also, why the hell doesn't mimi smartypants have a freaking RSS feed? It's 2005 fer christsake...
posted by jimray at 12:20 AM on January 30, 2005

The Pessoptimist (linked in the post) is written by our very own readymade.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:33 AM on January 30, 2005

I'm an avid infertility/pregnancy/parenting blog reader. Most of my favourites have already been mentioned, but shout outs to Indigo Girl (twin girls) and Laid Off Dad (no longer laid off, but with a hilarious 3yo son).
posted by corvine at 5:56 AM on January 30, 2005

Original MeFi thread about the Trixie Update, which was also on Friday's edition of Countdown with Keith Olberman. The Trixie thread got similar comments to yours, arielmeadow.

And, you know, my baby blog.

And also, some of my favorites:

• Daddy Types
• Daddy Zine
• Rebel Dad
• Full Time Father
• Laid-Off Dad
• Frum Dad
• Blogging the Children
• The Blue Sloth
• Dad Talk
• The Mommy Blog
• Moxie
• Me and Me Only
• This Woman's Work
• Flagrant Disregard

posted by eustacescrubb at 6:16 AM on January 30, 2005

Holy crap. I had to break my perfect 100-comment limit to say that it's like I've been called home to the Mother Ship.

Wow. I'm verklempt. Seriously! I'm blushing...
posted by readymade at 11:20 AM on January 30, 2005

alittlepregnant has a blog link list that is outstanding. I spend a lot of time there.
posted by konolia at 11:28 AM on January 30, 2005