Why all parenting blogs are destined to fail

I have received a few comments from fans (yes, I have some) this week about not blogging much lately and the truth is, they’re right — I haven’t. The excuse is a common one. I have simply been too busy.

The reason for my business is that I, like many, have discovered “Downton Abbey.” With the magic of Hulu Plus, I have been immersed in the subtle snark of 20th century English aristocracy. I’m just beginning the 3rd season: the family is broke, Bates is in jail and I just don’t know what is going to happen.

There is another reason for my being busy. A real reason. You see, in the past month, my son started to walk. At first it was only a few steps, but now, a few weeks later, he is fast like a cheetah. You can find him daily stomping from one end of the house to the other. I hear him coming, I hear him going, and when I don’t hear him at all I know he is causing trouble. He gets into everything. I spend my days trying in vain to climb the corporate ladder, and my nights with the more impossible task of keeping the boy out of the dog food.

I am convinced that this, more than any other reason, is why parenting blogs fail. Who has time to update the “daddy blog” while chasing your little demon around the house. There was a time when I could get a few paragraphs in early in the morning while the little guy slept, but no more. Now he is up with me, trying to eat dirt out of the house plants while I make coffee.

I’m not alone. Thousands of parents across America start baby blogs just as I did, only to give them up after a few short months. We all post those first hospital photos with pride. We blog about the first tooth, the first word, the first night of no sleep, the first full night of sleep. We crank out 1,000 words describing bowel movements resembling all the colors of the rainbow. But all this happens in those first few months, when the baby sits still and sleeps most of the time. Once they start crawling and walking, the writing stops.

I don’t write a politics blog, and frankly, it would be hard to speak highly of any politician or party with the way they are all acting lately. I’m not a social media blogger. I won’t try and fool you with the Top 10 way’s your company can use Vine or Instagram to grow its customers. I can’t be a journalist (I mean, have you seen my spelling? It’s a train wreck). I just write a parenting blog. One that can easily be replicated by the next newbie dad with a laptop and a flair for the dramatic.

Still, many close their laptops once their babies become a toddler, I can’t help but want to press on. Because though the first year has been fun, the ones that are coming are shaping up to be one hell of a ride. I hope to write for years to come, which will make my mother (and my other two fans who read this) very happy.

For those of you who are saying “how hard can it be to watch a little kid” at some point in the last few days my son managed to hide the garlic salt behind the couch. How he got the garlic salt in the first place, I’ll never know.

 

Pat Lemieux

About Pat Lemieux

Pat has it all, family, big old house, dogs, a young son and a quarter-life crisis. He blogs about trying to be who he has always been and be who he now needs to be. He enjoys 90's grunge metal, tasty local brews and the outdoors.