I like blogging.
I enjoy sitting down and spilling my guts onto a clean white page. I like the way it makes me think things out, work things through, straighten out my head and my emotions. I’d go as far as to say that I need to do it, it helps me to discover things about myself and my thinking that I didn’t know before, I make friends I’ve never met, maybe even help ppl I may never hear from.
(I didn’t take part in delurking week this year, but if there’s anyone out there that’s lurking and feels like saying hi, please feel free. Your comment may go into moderation if you’ve never commented before, don’t worry, I’ll find it and let it out!)
When I’m feeling nostalgic, I can read back in my past, and my children’s past. When I’m feeling lonely I can go peer through someone else’s windows and get a glimpse of someone else’s day to day existence. I can wax lyrical, or be subversive, provoke thought, send a hug. What is there not to like about blogs?
I do wonder occasionally if there are ppl reading that I’d rather not have read. So I do think about what topics I deem acceptable to share with the anonymous world. I know that search engines cache my pages, that there is no wiping clean on the www. I know that robots index my every word and thought, and that ppl looking for the strangest things wind up here every month. Do you remember discussing the bedtime songs on Nick Jr v Cbeebies? I get at least one link every month from some search result where someone was researching the jimjammers. (I suppose now I might get more 
)
I’ve started to make cents from my blog. It is only that. It doesn’t begin to offer a rate of pay that would allow me to consider being home all the time, which is a shame, but I’ve other strings to my bow. But it’s given me another addiction, to go look at my stats, wonder where ppl are coming from, ponder how I can make myself more interesting, what I can do to entice readers to hang around, to keep coming back, to share a little of themselves.
This started of as nothing more than a record of my families life approaching home education and the birth of our second child. Home education is still a part of our lives, and a part of this record, but it isn’t the sum of either of them. We are more than that. I live outside of these pages, and I doubt many of you would recognise me sat at a desk in an office. I barely recognise myself most days. But I can crank up an editor and remember who I want to be any time I have access to the ‘net.
I’m not going to be blogging any less. I’m sorry that I’m commenting less, I’ll try to be a bit more focussed. I’m also going to be giving more attention to the blogring - I think it’s an important resource for ppl coming to home education, I think it’s a support network, a place for ppl to realise they are not alone. Just because some ppl have found their friends, and moved on doesn’t mean I think its time is served, rather I think it has proved its worth and can go on proving it time and time again.
Thank you for reading.
21 Comments
Sing along!
I like blogging.
I like blogging.
I like blogging and I like to blog.
Repeat, until the 9 O’clock News comes on.
And thank *you* for writing
We used to look to the stars with awe and wonder. Now we can look to ourselves and beyond, and wonder.
Jax, you’re a genius.
Great post
I like blogs too. And i love the blogring. I’m not leaving, i’m not moving on. If i stop, the only thing that can happen is that my circle will get smaller; i want it to keep on growing
I suspect I may also continue to blog - and also have 2 different lives - one glimpsed only!
nice post
As someone who is pondering leaving the blog ring, this has given me reason to pause.
I’m glad you’re thinking twice Kris. Jax, I’m glad you wrote this. Yunno you make a lot of sense!
I’m de-lurking! Lovely post, I am one of the ‘blogless ones’, often think about it but have;’nt done it yet. I read a lot of H.E blogs because I find them helpful and inspiring.
I like the writing a diary aspect, but I don’t really like other people reading it. Feeling very insular atm though.
I like blogging but the reason I password everything at the moment is because of a few ‘bad apples’ in the HE community (nobody on the blogring). I also feel vulnerable for dd since dx and wonder who’s reading and taking note. Saying that I miss being out there for others to gain information from my blog (you never know somthing may be useful). Most people on the blogring have the password and if you haven’t you can always ask for it. Most of your reasons line up with mine too Jax.
What a wonderful post! So much of it echoes my own feelings about blogs. Be careful with that stat-watching addiction - it’s hard to break
Guys,
So we’re all in agreement. This is a superb post. Shall we give it a bit of publicity?
Anyone got a dollar to spare on Google AdWords?
Hmm, I’m concious that I’m sort of in a “cul-de-sac” on the ring just now due to my not so secret admirer but yes, the blogring is important here too. it’s sort of the school gate, all the parents gather there to gossip, share the good times and console each other on the vile and tantrum-y days. I would be lost without it.
Great post Jax. Personally, I love the blogring - writing my blog and reading all the others is the only contact I have with other He’ers since we moved and it helps me feel not so alone. I know I don’t comment much on anyones blog, but I have been reading it since inception and missed it so much when I didn’t have net access!
When I said I was starting up a blog Helen wondered what the point was……
Re the Blogring. Not weven thought of coming off it, but I have to say at the moment I’m only reading a subset of the blogs regulary, mostly people I’ve met, of come across enough onthe list to notice them. I do feel there is a bit less of community feel to the ring than there was when we joined are year and bit ago.
I’ve only been at it 5 months and I know exactly what you mean.
Karen, why not once in a while do a non-passworded balnder kind of blog? you and LC are doing great leaps and strides, andthe occassional nonpassworded proud mummy moment can only look good?
i agree that things come in phases - parent 2’s photo diary fopr instance - we managed to do a daily picture of the day of Sb for nearly 18 months with a few words attached - and that was having to do it in dreamweaver, painfully html it, do all the links from one day to another, make thumbnails and link etc et - so gradually all the effort and we got behind and then stopped. I rather wish we had managed to carry on as that was a fantastic thing [its not on the web now, though we have all the files etc!]
maybe one day bloggin will lose its allure and fade for something else.
one day we may either have to password or rename us adults [note i am gradually renaming!] due to the fact that I am too obvious!![she says , slightly panicking that someone who doesn't know me is going to get back with who i am and wher i work etc etc as we haven't been that privacy cautious!]
but until then..
Another de-lurker! I read the blogs as they inspire me to do more stuff with my kids and help me find great resources. Being a stay at home mum can be a lonely job and it is great to know I’m not alone in the joys and struggles of parenting. Thank you.
Welcome aboard (or out? what is the current way to welcome delurkers I wonder?) Amanda and Deborah. Good to know you’re there