Well it seems like someone who “used to be” a mommy blogger just decided to throw all the rest of the mommy bloggers under the bus. Really it would be hilarious if it was not so sad.
Life’s Not Perfect
She rants and swears and complains about everyone’s perfect life and how life isn’t perfect. Guess what? We know. We all know life is not all sunshine and roses. However if I wrote about everything bad that happened in our lives, no one would read me, because honestly who likes a downer.
I am a daddy blogger, and I talk about some of the realities of my son and his autism. It is not all sunshine and roses and I don’t even try to pretend that it is. But I talk about the good things and I emphasize the fact that they are good things. I dont bother talking to much about the bad because really, the only ones who truly understand the bad,are already living that. They do not need to hear about more of the bad, they are looking for hope in the good. The ones who don’t understand the bad, really don’t understand and can’t understand how this happens.
You Don’t Attack A Whole Industry
You attacked all mommy bloggers and guess what. They are having something to say about it.
I have found 3 great post so far (and please if you find more let me know)
Sadie from Slap Dash Mom wrote: Your Mommy Blog Doesn’t Suck…. And Here’s Why.
Brandi from Life with 5 Monkies wrote: Dear Josi Denise
While Jill from Ripped Jeans & Bifocals wrote: I’m a mommy blogger and I effing like it.
All of these bloggers had the same thing to say. No our blogs don’t suck and neither do most mommy blogs, Yes people actually read what we write (even when it is only 5 people some days) and yes our opinion matters.
Why So Many Positive Reviews?
I do reviews, and guess what? They are positive reviews. Do you want to know why my reviews are almost always positive? Because I pitch for what I want, not everything under the sun and I only accept pitches that interest me. Why would I pitch for or accept a pitch for a product I am not that interested in. I expect if someone sent me a garbage product, I would talk about it. But after I gave them a chance to correct it, and then I would also talk about how they worked to fix the problem as well.
I have not sold my soul.
My blog is like any other job I do. It helps to pay my bills, it puts food on the table and as such I have to do my job properly. I do not sneak, I do not cheat. I write honestly because if my review is a lie, then the reader loses their trust in me. If my readers lose trust in me, then my blog is toast. I don’t really edit my reviews unless there is a legal concern (wrong terminology for example) or if the company would like me to anchor their link to a different set of text instead of what I chose.
I am a lifestyle blogger.
I chose to slot myself as a lifestyle blogger because I dont like to pigeon hole myself into one small area. I travel some and I write about it, but I dont spend my year travelling, I have young kids and that is impossible. I like food and I will share some fun recipes if the mood strikes me, because I like them, or the kids do. I write about autism. And I could write about only autism, it might even get me a stronger reader base. But there is so much else to my life and my family besides just autism. I have two other kids who don’t have autism. Why should just one of my kids be the focus. I am a lifestyle blogger because, guess what? This is my life. Not just one aspect of it, but different aspects (but never all of it).
But you want to know what really made me laugh….
I don’t know you. I have never heard of The American Mama
Apparently you are a big blogger. I am not. I have maybe four hundred less FB fans then you do. And yes apparently you have way more Twitter followers then I do, and more Pinterest followers then I do and more on Instagram too. But I still haven’t heard of you before your profanity laced rant.
So when you say you are killing the mommy blog. Good luck with that.
More likely what you are really trying to do, is make some of the other mommy bloggers go away because the competition is getting to severe. And you might succeed with that. A couple bloggers will probably just give up, if they actually read your blog of course. But most of them will just laugh.
See you talked about all the things that are wrong with mommy blogs. And you are right some mommy bloggers do those things. Some sell their soul, some play the follow/unfollow games, some might fudge the review in favour of the brand a bit. But guess what. That is not most, that is some. Most value their integrity to much.
Conventions
Many bloggers attend conventions. And most of them come away with productive contacts with brands they are interested in. Those contacts often make up at least a part of the coverage that each blogger uses on their blog. However these conferences and conventions often have seminars and panels discussing various subjects. Ideally those panels and seminars are run by experts in the subject. However randomly choosing to toss everything away on the say so of panelists is a mistake. Before you change anything, look to see how you are actually doing. Make changes gradually and be ready to correct your course if your results are different then expected. Because not every person has the same results with the same methods.
What Is The Most Important Message The American Mama Teaches?
She teaches us that we can not let people who believe they are important and special tear us down. She singled out individual issues spread amongst a small number of bloggers and used it to paint an entire group.
And she blew it.
She will get traffic from her post, but no blogger will ever trust her again. She had a melt down, a profanity laced one. That will impact her ability to use her blog and her name to work with brands again. Because when something this big blows up. You can’t take that back. It will live on the internet forever.
Part of me feels sympathy for her. But this is my business she is talking about. So the sympathy is short lived.
Alyssa says
You hit the nail on the head with this one my friend. I couldn’t even get through this bloggers post without my stomach turning. Nobody has time for bitterness. No matter what you do in life there will be those negative voices, don’t listen to them. Especially when they’re coming from someone as angry as this person. Do what you love and love what you do.
Brandi Best says
It’s not the first time, probably not the last time, that someone thought they could just go on a tangent about mommy bloggers. What irked me about her rant so badly, was the tearing down of an entire group of women, and then admitting it openly on Facebook that she was bashing others. She is a bully. Plain and simple.
Shaunacey says
yes yes and YES!!!
I had never heard of her before and I truly hope she enjoys her 5 seconds of fame because it’s highly likely, as you said, she has lost the trust of the majority of her fellow sucky mommy-blogging followers. I wasn’t one and certainly won’t be becoming one.
She totally blew it, some of her points were partially accurate but the rage-y and pompous delivery killed all that. She COULD have wrote something, similar but a wee but more positive, slightly encouraging even. It may not have gone viral like this post, but she probably wouldn’t be getting hate mail from sucky mommy-bloggers for the foreseeable future.
Shaunacey says
hope it’s okay that I link to your post in mine 🙂
Carl Bainbridge says
definitely cool
Nope says
Lol you all live in echo chambers.
Carl Bainbridge says
lol not so much as you might imagine.
Jill Robbins says
Good points! She’s nuts. I think she’s going through some sort of hormonal transformation. Bless her heart.