Why I blog

A new bloggie friend of mine, Rachel, recently wrote about why she blogs.

Now, normally, if people ask me, I say I blog because I need an outlet for the frustrations of every day working mommyhood. And that's not a lie. Sometimes there are days like this that only you other mommies would truly understand.

But if that were truly the only reason, then why would I feel so ecstatic when I get 40 comments on a picture of my son? Why am I so hooked on social networking? Why do I feel near-panic if I'm offline for more than a day at a time?

Another new bloggie friend, the Nap Warden, recently wrote about a crappy comment she received, in which the writer felt "blogging=narcissism." Thankfully, I've yet to receive my first "hate comment" but what I'm going after by mentioning this post is that I guess, to a certain extent, we all need some validation now and again, right? We need that little "yes, you are important enough that other people will read about your life." We all need that little, "yes, your kids are cute and funny and smart." We all need a little, "gawd, I've been there, too!" And there's nothing to be ashamed of in that.

And for me? I guess I need the luhve I get from bloggy land because I'm lonely! Here I am, a thirty-year-old working professional. I work in a big tall building downtown and have my own fancy office. I own a home and am financially very stable. I have a wonderful husband and I've always been blessed with a lot of real life friends. But in reality, there are very few of them that have kids the same ages as mine. And those that do? Well, all this working and mommy-ing and geez...being spouses to our husbands sorta gets in the way of all those girl nights we envision. In those months between one girl-date and another, I need a touch of that happiness that can only come from girlfriends. The giggling, the jokes about inappropriate things, the giving of small gifts called comments to let one another know we are appreciated.

When we became parents nearly four years ago, the Hubster and I made the conscious decision that we would both stay home with our kids, which for those of you who don't know, means we work opposite shifts. We each get a lot of one-on-one time with our kiddos, which is great, but we don't get a lot of time with each other. There are a lot of "passing in the night parking lot" kisses and, uh, that's about it.

Not only is it hard to constantly be without your spouse (giving major props to Army/Navy/Marine wives right now) but its also hard to have to do everything by yourself with two little kids. Don't get me wrong here, I subscribe to the "if you make your expectations known to children, they'll learn how to behave" school of thought, as in, if you take them to church or out to eat regularly, they will be more accustomed as to how they should behave in those places. And my kids are very good. But its still tiring to lug two small kids in and out of stores (and thus, in and out of car seats in between each trip). At the end of the day, arranging a play date with a friend and their kids just seems even more tiring!

So what do I do? I read other blogs and comment. I put my feet up and plurk, or twitter, or check out the scene on Cre8buzz. Its like chatting with friends while your kids play, but without worrying that someone's eating play dough or trying to climb the curtains. And without having to clean the house first.

I might not blog for the deepest of reasons but there my reasons none-the-less. There are plenty of days when I still just need to get a little mommy stress off my chest and others when I just want to share cute pics of my kids with the world.

Why do *you* blog?