Why Blog?

This post originally appeared in my old blog, www.the-alice.co.uk

I’ve been pondering writing a post about this for a while, about why I like to blog. And I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I’ve always enjoyed sharing my thoughts with the world, something that was considered a bit odd when I started my first online diary in 1998. Thankfully times have changed and blogging isn’t considered such a freakshow – 126 million bloggers worldwide can’t be wrong.

I think this record of my pregnancy and birth with Elfie will be a wonderful thing to look back on. I know that in so much of the pregnancy and early days (and last couple of weeks) I was so tired I barely remembered my own name, and even now I really enjoy reading my old posts to remember what happened at each stage of my pregnancy. It’s a shocker to realise how quickly I’ve forgotten how horrendous it all was.

Elfie will probably be totally embarrassed at some of the photos I’ve posted online of her, but how lovely for her to know what her mum and dad were doing when she was living inside me. Where we were eating, what I was craving, where we were working and what we did on New Years Eve.

She will probably think we were both very uncool.

Blogging is also a fantastic way for me to get things off my chest, and to get feedback from others I wouldn’t usually come across otherwise. I’ve met some really wonderful people through my website and get to read other insightful blogs every day. I am by nature a very nosy person, and reading blogs satisfies the urges I have to read about others’ lives.

I’ve been off work for 5 months now; my job as Digital Marketing Manager for a magazine meant I was able to legitimately be online all day (heaven!) and I guess if I’m blogging I am able to remain within the online ‘loop’. The Online realm is constantly changing and evolving and was I to step out of it entirely I am scared I would lose track of the industry. So I guess blogging is another way for me to still feel included in the world I’ve worked within for such a long time.

I’ve always been reticent to show my blog to people in real life – I don’t know why, I don’t write anything here that I wouldn’t reveal to a work colleague after a couple of beers. Speaking to some of my fellow Huggies Mummies it would seem I’m not alone in this. I wonder why that is, why blogging is still a little bit taboo? And I wonder how many people in our lives blog, but don’t tell us about it?