Popularity Contest

I've learned that there's a whole different culture in blogland. It's been giving me flashbacks from high school popularity contests in the 1980's. I didn't know this blog culture existed when I started this gig. Honestly, I was just looking for an easy way to set up a website for friends and family (especially those at a distance) to enjoy keeping up with news about my daughter, who was then 16 months old. Surprisingly, I have picked up a few outside readers, and they are welcome here.

In the past two years and two months since I began this project, my eyes have been opened to the culture, and I feel like I'm wearing the wrong hairstyle or the wrong clothes and that I'm being ousted by the "cool kids." I guess it's a competition to see how many readers you can get and how much traffic you can generate. I've learned that one of the blogging sub-cultures is identified as "mommy bloggers," I was intrigued when I learned about this sub-culture and began bumping elbows with other "mommy bloggers." From there it didn't take long for me to learn that there are also blog cliques. Apparently, in order to belong you have to draw a lot of readers. If your stuff is deemed "good" and you get enough readers you can get nominated for Prom Queen.

I don't really want to compete in a popularity contest, but it is nice to be noticed. I appreciate my handful of non-family readers. Especially since I eschew certain topics due to the original intention of this blog. You won't find me writing negative stuff about family members and in-laws or writing four letter words. I'm not much of a four letter word user anyway (unless you count "crap"...and I have been known to say "ass," which I was surprised to learn that some people think is a cuss word). And I don't typically write from the darkest places of my existence. Wait, that's not totally true. After all, I did write this. And this. And this. And this.

I actually found myself feeling pulled into the peer pressure of being accepted in cyberspace by my blogging counterparts. Fortunately, I got my head back and came to terms with the fact that I'll never be Prom Queen. I don't have time to frequent two dozen blogs and drop my comments at every visit, and I don't have time to post to this blog on a daily or multiple times per day basis. Even if I wanted to, I don't have time to work at "generating traffic," and I don't feel like altering my content for that purpose. I've got other priorities. I'm busy homeschooling, playing with play dough, reading Dr. Suess, and playing at the park. And in my "spare time" I'm busy manging my part-time professional counseling career. My original purpose was to give family members a place to view the latest pics of my wee ones and to read about their latest quips and antics. If you are a non-family reader and you actually come here because you are entertained by my writing or my little family life, please know you are welcome, and I'm glad to have you. But I don't plan on frying out my bangs with Aquanet or wearing pegged jeans to fit in.