Tag Archives: mommyblogging

Blog Love

Laurie and Debbie say:

Lindsay at Autist’s Corner very kindly gave us a blog award:

I [heart] your blog image

We got this charming little image to post, and we get to pass it along to seven of our favorite blogs (not an easy choice, folks!)

Here’s what we came up with.

Autism Vox is an excellent blog in a journalistic style, providing good clear information, interpretation and advice for anyone dealing with autism spectrum issues, especially in children.

Can I Sit With You? is a group blog and book publishing project, started by women whose children were having some social troubles in school. And didn’t we all? The project collects “memorable stories about surviving, succeeding, or sucking it up while dealing with the other kids at school.” The stories go onto the blog and are then pulled together into small affordable books, and the proceeds go to a special-needs PTA group. The project has attracted some extraordinary writing.

Meowser at Fat Fu doesn’t update as often as we might like, but when she does she really digs into the issues. One of the best (of the excellent) fatosphere blogs around.

Debbie’s favorite mommyblog is Gwendomama. There’s something about her writing, as she deals with two living children and the memory of one deceased child. The best personal blogs combine honesty and humor, and this is a really fine example.

How can you resist a blog called I, Asshole? SJ writes a brilliant, funny, engaging personal feminist blog, with lots about her life and her kids, and the occasional side trip into politics, recipes, and reviews.

Natalie Bennett describes her blog, Philobiblon, as being about “green politics, history (mostly women’s history), science, and art. Always feminist.” We’re both particularly fond of the historical posts, but everything she posts is good to read. She’s also the creator and tireless advocate of the Carnival of Feminists.

The bar at Rachel’s Tavern is serving more milk than beer these days, since Rachel had her adorable son. Nonetheless, she’s still serving up trenchant commentary on politics and race, along with incredibly cute baby pictures.

This post was fun to write!

BlogHer ’08: Amazing Women Everywhere You Look

<b>Laurie and Debbie say:</b>

This year’s BlogHer conference was in Laurie’s home city, and just across the bay from Debbie’s. Laurie went to the presenters’ party Thursday night. Laurie says: “The party gave me a chance to see folks I met last year in Chicago, have lots of brief intense conversations, and meet face to face and talk with panel members. Then I went to a party on the top floor of the Westin St. Francis and was completely knocked out by a 280 degree view of the city through tall windows. I took a slow tour around. It was amazingly beautiful. The St Francis is an old nouveau style hotel and I loved the decor.”

Friday morning, we both skipped breakfast and the keynote, and showed up in time for the first breakout session. We chose “Is Mommyblogging Still a Radical Act?” (liveblog transcript here) and found our first outstanding panel of the weekend. Lindsay Ferrier was an extraordinary moderator: the BlogHer style is to encourage statements, as well as questions from the audience and to operate with the assumption that everyone has something interesting to say. Lindsay modeled this perfectly, going to the audience even before all the panelists had had a chance to do more than introduce themselves. The result was a high-level, freewheeling discussion which nonetheless managed to stay focused. Laurie was really happy to have Lindsay as an example before she moderated her panel later that afternoon. All three panelists–Polly Pagenhart from Lesbian Dad, Maria from Immoral Matriarch, and Charlene Li, were as good as Lindsay. (The conclusion: a lot of different meanings of “radical” were in the room, and mommyblogging fits many, if not all, of them. Everyone was interested in the relationship among integrity, commoditization, and blogs as moneymakers. The potential impact of a nationwide–and bigger–network of women building community support networks and political power cannot be overestimated.)

After lunch, we went to “Race and Gender: What are the lessons of 2008?” (liveblog transcript here) If you’re a regular reader, you know that we don’t put much energy into electoral politics. But this panel was billed as going beyond that, and it completely lived up to its billing. The panelists were Adele Nieves (moderator), Maria Niles, Jill Miller Zimon, Cynematic, and Caille Millner. The panel covered an interesting range, not only of issues but of levels of experience. Once again, BlogHer’s cultural expectations made it possible to respect people who are new to these issues while clearly hearing the more complex and nuanced (and sometimes angry) positions. Topics ranged from the controversial New Yorker cover through white people working on racism in ourselves and others, to alternate metaphors (such as the Rubik’s cube) for discussing these subjects with less historical loading.

Laurie’s panel immediately followed this one (Debbie’s liveblog transcript with links to all participants here). Laurie says: “I was nervous about the moderation because Blogher’s approach needs a symphony conductor style. It took a lot of concentration, and it all went really well. We talked about body image issues, including size, race, gender, and sexualization of children in lucid and passionate ways. The conversation about early puberty development in both girls and boys and what that means in terms of parents’ and kids’ body image is one I really want to pursue. All three panelists were clear, lucid, intense and sometimes funny. I got my wish for a panel that discussed kids and body image in the broad and complex sense. The audience comments wove together with the panelists for a conversation that was way more than the sum of its parts. I wasn’t sure we’d pull this off and I was thrilled. Over the next day and a half, I really appreciated how many women told me that the panel was important, and good for them. I need to thank Denise Tanton and Jenny Lauck for their help.”

On Saturday, we went to one more fabulous panel (well, Debbie went to half of it): Blogging About Our Kids with Special Needs (liveblog transcript here). Panelists were Susan Etlinger, Shannon Des Roches Rosa, Kristina Chew, Jennifer Graf Groneberg, and Vicki Forman. The panel description says these women “are among those mommybloggers who are blogging their experiences and finding both a community and a cause.” Panelists and audience were sharing both intimate support and information and clearly finding the results helpful and important. The women in the room were a stellar example of mommyblogging as radical: this is a group which is truly pulling together to change laws, school policies, cultural expectations, and social attitudes. The discussion was intelligent, clear, and loving. Laurie says, “If you’re only going to read one transcript, read this one.”

There was lots of good stuff in the rest of the conference: other panels, hallway interactions, keynotes, swap meet, evening events. These were just the highlights for the two of us.

Thanks to Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, Kristy Sammis, and the host of staff and volunteers. We both know what it takes to make a conference as complicated as this one run smoothly, and they did a great job!