What's a Mommy Blogger? Part One of Two

Me in mommy mode, pre-blog.

The other day, the term "good mommy blogger" was used in a forum to which I belong. The first query  that followed was "define good" but "define mommy blogger" came on it's heels (I asked this question first but several others did, too).

Since I've been "threatening" to write about the term "mommy blogger" for some time now, I think now is a good time take a stab at the subject. To disclose right from the get-go--I do not care for the term. I believe it was coined or at least popularized by the media and I feel that it's use will ultimately create resentment and a backlash, very much like the term "soccer mom."  Also, since the official definition appears to not exist, the subjectiveness of it's meaning will continue to create confusion among both writers and readers of "mommy blogs."

Before I write anything that I'm not intimately acquainted with (and sometimes even when I am) I do online searches for information on the topic at hand. I did not get very far in my search results before I found my request on the forum that "mommy blogger" be defined. My own question as an "answer." Not what I was looking for.

Besides the search engines, I tried online dictionaries including Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia. Nothing other than links to blogs that either have used the words "mommy" and "blogger" within their posts or  blogs that actually have the word "mommy," "mom," etc. in them.

At this point in my quest to come up with what a mommy blog/ger is, what I've found is that many women use the term to drive traffic to their blogs. In a harsh light this could be seen as making money off the ability the reproduce.

There are a number of reactions to this practice (and I thought I was the only one who cared!) so I'll write more about what I find defines a "mommy blog/ger" after I've researched more and I'll link the posts as I go along.

Comments

[Her Brother]

'Sequestered in Evanston'? Evanston is to Schaumburg as Schaumburg is to West Aurora. I spent the past seventeen years living and working among a highly educated and cosmopolitan community. Many Evanston moms do, I'm sure, drive their kids to and from soccer games, but motherhood is not the be-all-end-all of their lives. They're too busy living life to spent much time blogging about it.

[Cyn]

@Jamie: Bro: You needed to get out more. You were sequestered in Evanston so long--you've not lived in suburbia in forever and you did not for years meet ladies who did not like being thrown in a a box and labeled a soccer mom even if they did drive their kids to soccer a lot.
Also the term "soccer mom" does not have
"_____ blogger" in it.
Soccer mom was overused and over-applied. That's the worst of it, in a nutshell.

[Cyn]

Non attribution is rampant.
That's why I get a thrill (not kidding) out of (free!) access to a ton of Vox stock photos and I can crosspost them to Typepad. (It's encouraged with a button(!):D

[Dan]

I think the only term that would bother me associated with blogger would be:

"Plagiarism Blogger."

That, I would not want to live with and we've seen a lot of non-attribution online. What's great about blogging is that we can be ourselves — and be original.

[Her Brother]

Why does the term bother you? And how could it cause a backlash? For that matter, what backlash did I miss from "soccer mom"? Do you think that anyone labeled as being a "_____ blogger" would be offended, regardless of what the blank was filled in with?

[Dan]

I hope a mommy blogger is nothing like a soccer mom.