I was having a discussion earlier this week with a friend that does not know very much about blogging. She asked some questions that I thought needed answering.

Why blog?

Well for me, blogging is my way of reaching out to the world. I’m a stay at home Mum. I get to go out with Jaxon two or three time’s a week but other than that I’m home. With a child that isn’t talking yet, with animals that don’t talk and away from my husband, who needs to work. I get lonely and I go stir crazy. Blogging is my way of getting to say the things I want to say, and to read other people’s thoughts on the same topics. In short, it gives me something to THINK about.

Four years ago Tim and I moved away from family, and 1 year ago the only family we had here moved away from us. So this is a great way to keep them in the loop. They not only get to see photo’s of their grandson, but they get to hear the story behind the photo’s and often get to see video’s that otherwise would be too big to send via email.

I also like to think of it as a living and breathing baby book. I have one of those baby books that you write things in as they happen. But I never go to it, because it goes here. I have Jaxon’s first steps here, I’ll have his first words here too. I have photo’s and video’s, something you can’t put in that paper book and something that would be lost on a disc somewhere if it wasn’t here. Here Jaxon will not only get to see when he first started doing things, but he’ll be able to see the video footage of him jumping off the couch, and talking and walking.

I hope that one day Jaxon will read back over these pages and know exactly what life was like with us. I’d like to think that if anything happened to both Tim and I and he was with his grandparents, that they would continue to show him the blog as he grew up without us. I like to think that if we weren’t around that them showing this to him would make him feel like we really were still here. That the words I write, be it how I really feel or just about the things that we do, would be something that Jaxon could take with him wherever he went. Instead of only having small memories of us, he would have a world of information about how we lived and how much we love him.

Posting pictures of Jaxon on the web, is that safe?

Well, maybe not. But the way I see it, who is really reading MY blog? There are MILLIONS of mummy blogger’s out there. A few Daddy blogger’s too. We all have the same things to say, in different ways. I’m not a famous blogger like dooce or Sweet Juniper. I have friends from my forums who read what I write, I have a few family and friends who keep up with what we do here. I might be lucky and have a few other people that have found me through links from other blogging mummies. I don’t have thousands of loyal followers. So maybe there are people out there that I specifically don’t know. Who come here and read what I write. I do not feel like it put’s Jaxon in any sort of danger. We’re just another face in the crowd.

How do you find the time?

I honestly don’t spend a lot of time here actually blogging. But it does consume a lot of my time. I could be changing a nappy or giving a bath or cooking dinner. I am always thinking of things that I could put here and how I could spin them in a better or funnier light. Everything in life now has become a possible blog entry. Just ask Tim. When something is happening and he see’s me reaching for the camera…he has to say “No, this is NOT going on the blog” because he knows exactly what I am doing.

There’s also a wonderful feature within blogger and the program that I use to write blog entries, that allows you to write entries ahead of time and have them posted automatically. I often blog really late at night and have them set to be published the day after when I’m still not at the computer. Time’s like today, when I have a Blue Care babysitter here for four hours, I can sometime’s have three entries written up and ready to go.

How long are you going to do it? 

As long as I can. I love blogging. It gives me something to think about, a way to reach out to people and a way to give something to Jaxon that I was never given. LOT’S OF PHOTO’s! This is my on line diary. One day, when I am old and gray and starting to lose my mind…I’ll be able to look back and remember just what it was like to be a mother to a 20 month old.

How do your family feel about you blogging?

I honestly don’t know. I do know they come here often for updates. And I do get asked why I haven’t updated if it’s been a few days between posts. I think what people reading this blog need to understand though is that a lot of the things I say about things that have been said to me or about me, or whatever…have been exaggerated or taken out of context. Just to make them funnier.

For example, in my last post, about my father in law sending me an email about being a better wife I KNOW that he didn’t send it along to TELL me I wasn’t a good wife (did you Poppy??). My father in law is a lovely man with a wonderful sense of humour. I know it’s something that he sent along to make me laugh.

In my post about asking my Mum about Jaxon being ready for time out’s and what not she didn’t really tell me she was too busy and needed to wash her hair and couldn’t help me with making the right decisions for Jaxon.  It was just written that way.

When you’re reading my blog, or anyone else’s blog you need to take everything that is said with a grain of salt. Everyone has their own style of writing and story telling. And that’s all a blog is. One great big story. History in the making.

Besides, when I want to tell the truth about them all…I write it on my secret blog.