So, my husband said that if I couldn’t come up with something to write about weekly, I should “DO MORE!!! Be a better, more interesting person!” If that sounds harsh, you must not have ever met my husband or read his buzz to me on the subject.
I feel like I do a lot. Though I don’t always have things to write about, and I am feeling more limited than ever on that front. I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole internet fad. When I started this blog five (FIVE??) years ago, the whole face of the intertubes was different. Things were less connected. I wasn’t super concerned about people finding my blog in the sea of content (though Charles always was, hence no pictures of the kids really appear here). And I guess I still don’t really care about potential employers or my insurance company or whatever finding content on my blog and affecting their perception of me. I feel like I represent myself pretty honestly in person and via this vehicle here.
However, as D reaches the age where he browses the internet himself, and his friends are more likely to do so, I worry a bit about the online presence I am creating for him and for Rose. I have been telling their stories, not particularly sure that anyone was listening, and as much for my own enjoyment and to preserve these memories that crack me up or bring nostalgic tears to my eyes. Life with kids passes so quickly, and it may sound trite, but there are so many moments that I just want to press into a scrapbook the minute they occur. Way too many times, I forget the specific thing that they said that made me laugh or whatever before I make it to my computer to write them down, and they are lost forever. I actually printed all my early blog posts into a book, and published them so that I’d have them in the off chance an EMP destroys the webernets or the machines rise or something.
But, I’ve been wondering if it is really fair to the kids for me to put their stories out there in this way. Is some kid going to Google Dillon in sixth grade and discover an embarrassing story about how D’s reading outpaces his pronunciation, so I am constantly realizing that he’s using a word (perilous) and pronouncing it (per-ILL-us) in a new way? Or my worries about the political and social implications of giving Rose a short haircut? [Disclosure: Not sure I ever wrote those blog posts, but you get the idea.]
Anyway. Just something I’ve been thinking about. Maybe it isn’t that I am not an interesting person, maybe my blog is changing. And it has, over the past five years, morphed from a way to communicate with the family about an adoption in progress to random thoughts about being a mom and experiences with my kids. Not sure where I’ll go from here, and probably wont stop posting about my kids entirely, but I think I am a pretty decent person. But I am happy to take ideas from anyone who might read this on how I could be a more interesting person.