I read this article yesterday on Salon by John Barry: My baby is too boring to blog about
And I disagree, but it made me feel defensive anyway. After reading other blogs, like Refract, I confess that I've wondered: given that I'm blogging, why all, or mostly, about Nina? Why not a science blog? Or one all about amazing bacteria? Or math (who am I kidding)? Or music, or food? Or, maybe most relevantly, none at all?
Well ... first off, it's not given that I'm blogging. This is not the given part of this scenario. It's given that I'm parenting. It's not like I can choose, hmmm, I'm going to spend many hours each week engaged in some outside-of-my-work activity that can be funny, heartbreaking, isolating, connection-affirming, maddening, deadly dull, frustrating, and fascinating, all in the space of just 32 short minutes ... and gee, what is that activity going to be? Is it .... scuba diving? Music? No! It's parenting! Once the child is here, we are parents every day, and at least in our case it was by choice, and greatly celebrated.
But John Barry's right about some things. It's boring to read about whether someone went to Starbucks or Second Cup, whether it was quiet enough there to work, what kind of coffee they had and what the people at the next table were shouting about on their cell phones. I get that. And I get that it can be pretty boring to see pictures of someone else's precious child doing whatever precious children do at that age. So why did I start a blog?
Well, I doubt John B could go back and read all the archives of www.alittlepregnant.com and tell me that it doesn't reach out far beyond a bunch of multimedia collections about that particular story, those particular children. Parenting is a huge part of human experience and people like to share it, maybe so as not to feel like they are the only ones whose toddlers have a fear of lawnmowers. It is generic and it's unique. Most everyone does it, but it seems to require a lot more creativity than we give it credit for, not to mention sensitivity and perceptiveness, upper arm strength, stamina, patience, and finely honed negotiation skills. I blog because I've been entertained, informed and moved by the blogs I've read, I blog for myself, to remember these rapidly-evaporating penguin days, to share my excuse for a "scrapbook" with our relatives who are all too far away to enjoy a paper scrapbook, not that I'd have the time and energy for that either, and I blog for the occasional amusement of my friends. And like everything else out there, in newspapers, magazines, blogs, videos and novels: if it's in a genre that bores someone, he doesn't have to read it.
On that note:
4 comments:
that is a great post. I think your blog is great, as is the subject! And the pictures are to die for.
I liked this post too (and thanks for the link but i need to update ahhh)
Imagine how Barry's kid will feel when they grow up and read even their own dad thought they were boring!
This is a good question to ask! And as I've said before, I do enjoy your blog. I don't think the right question to ask is whether to blog about your baby or not, but how to.
Both you and Barry are correct in your reasons to blog or not to blog. (Though I take issue with his statements about enlightenment flatlining. That speaks to what what could be a serious issue... if other people find your baby boring that's understandable, if you find your own baby's development boring then that is sad and you are probably letting your wife do all the parenting :)
I started to go on but instead wrote an actual meta-blog entry about it here:
http://reepicheep.livejournal.com/247704.html
But you are blogging for yourself. You are interesting, and if people don't think you are, screw them.
I've always felt that subject matter is a really personal choice, and that it is how one writes that matters. The Hagagure is beautiful but it isn't exactly like I need to know how to carry out the duties of a Samarai lord; Catcher in the Rye is one of the greatest narratives ever written but it's just a few hours in the life of a spoiled teenager. I mean, setting aside the fact that I like seeing the pics of your child, this is an age in which we can all put our unique voices out there, and I don't see a need to defend subject matter. (However I maintain the right to complain about the person who said I had to read Madame Bovery. I didn't want to waste a week learning about the French rural middle class. I really didnt).
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