Roving reporter edition
In the interest of actually keeping up, here is this week's roving reporter edition of the Toddlerblog. I'm sitting in the parking lot of my favorite local ice cream place, having a lovely milkshake. Charlotte is peacefully conked out in her car seat. Chris is out of town this week, and when he is, I spend an awful lot of time in the car. (mostly parked with a drink and snack, I'm very conscious of gas prices and my wagon's not-so-hot city mileage!) Writing, drinking coffee, a virtual by-myself experience punctuated by baby snores.
I now remember one thing that prevented me from returning to this blog because it made me so mad -- this article in the NYT. (yes yes, I know, if I really were that angry I would have simply blogged about it like this writer, who made an effective rebuttal months before I had even finished fuming about it.)
What the critics of parent blogs seem to be missing is that you can't bloody well do anything without affecting your children. Whether you pick your nose, or swear, or throw occasional mini-tantrums of your own while trying to jam the resistant child back into the car seat, it's all going to make a dent.
Writing has its own balance sheet, separate from parenting, but not that different when you look at them side by side. Everyone who's ever been creative knows that each piece -- maybe each work session -- has a cost. Time, lost attention to loved ones, or one too many viewings of the new Teletubby movie. I believe it's just as narcissistic to deny your need to write because of the potential for harm to your subjects. Better to let it out, than to find yourself by the wading pool popping Valium,
A lot of people are justifiably afraid of writing online, because it's much more permanent than anyone suspects. But that's just the way it is now. In ten years, our babies are going to take this changed world for granted. (as if that isn't a sobering enough thought!)
I have made little enough sense as usual. More soon. Ha ha. Yeah.
I now remember one thing that prevented me from returning to this blog because it made me so mad -- this article in the NYT. (yes yes, I know, if I really were that angry I would have simply blogged about it like this writer, who made an effective rebuttal months before I had even finished fuming about it.)
What the critics of parent blogs seem to be missing is that you can't bloody well do anything without affecting your children. Whether you pick your nose, or swear, or throw occasional mini-tantrums of your own while trying to jam the resistant child back into the car seat, it's all going to make a dent.
Writing has its own balance sheet, separate from parenting, but not that different when you look at them side by side. Everyone who's ever been creative knows that each piece -- maybe each work session -- has a cost. Time, lost attention to loved ones, or one too many viewings of the new Teletubby movie. I believe it's just as narcissistic to deny your need to write because of the potential for harm to your subjects. Better to let it out, than to find yourself by the wading pool popping Valium,
A lot of people are justifiably afraid of writing online, because it's much more permanent than anyone suspects. But that's just the way it is now. In ten years, our babies are going to take this changed world for granted. (as if that isn't a sobering enough thought!)
I have made little enough sense as usual. More soon. Ha ha. Yeah.
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