Proud member of the mom-ocracy

Moms who blog were a huge part of my reward for BlogHer '05, from a barn-burner of a panel discussion to Finslippy's brilliant comment at the closing session. "These women, their writing, it's all irresistible," I told my own mother the next day. "But could I ever be that brave?"

The answer is: Sometimes. I recently took the plunge and tried on mommyblogging. The founders of Mommybloggers.com -- Jenn Satterwhite, Jenny Lauck and Meghan Townsend -- put me on the hot-seat, asking 20 questions and booking me to write this guest column.

Like good mothers do when they want an answer, they properly grilled me. That was the easy part. While I'm always happy to sound off about women and the media, I was particularly happy to be asked to go on the record about these two questions:

• What I think of the oft-dissed term "mommybloggers"

Mommybloggers: "Were you surprised at the venom towards mommyblogging as a genre [at BlogHer]? What about the disdain towards the term mommyblogger? What do you personally think of the term mommyblogger?"

Lisa: "Sadly, no, I was not surprised. Because I was the target of plenty of venom and disdain myself when I had the audacity to suggest a conference for women bloggers. Perhaps this disdain toward the word "mommy" is why so many women I know struggle ferociously with their identities when they become mothers. I mean, what kind of a reward is this -- we struggle through a pregnancy, survive birth (moment of silence please), embrace motherhood, which is the scariest and mind-blowing thing I've ever done, and we get put down for it? That's the root issue -- ambivalence over what "mommy" represents. Well, I love "mommy." Because to me it isn't a disembodied word anymore. It's who I am. It's carved in my heart. And in my stretchmarks. I just wish I could convince my nine-year-old to be less cool and call me "mommy" again every once in awhile..."

• What I think of mommyblogging as a business opportunity:

Mommybloggers: "Lately, the business world is sitting up and taking notice of moms who blog - marketing to moms isn't new, but is using mommybloggers to get the word out seems to be big right now. Do you see that as the new way to go in marketing or just fad? Do you think our opinions really influence?"

Lisa: "Yes ma'am! Mommybloggers are weaving some of the Web's best stories by and about women -- women who, let's not forget, control 80 percent of household spending. That's right, from the family car to the computer (you geeks, you) to the Legos (sigh) to the Pampers.

"Let's look at another medium as an example: Right now, the top revenue-generating news and entertainment shows on television are by moms for moms. Look at NBC's The Today Show starring Katie Couric: By a mom for moms, and the top-rated morning news show for ten straight years. How about Oprah, a daily conversation by the-mother-of-us-all for moms. There's ABC's The View, which is a coffee klatch of moms, mugs included. Don't forget ABC's Desperate Housewives, the made-up moms (take that any way you like). Hell, ABC's World News Tonight just put an anchormom, Elizabeth Vargas, in Peter Jennings' old chair, for heaven's sake!

"This is great news for mommybloggers because all these famous shows are in a money-making medium (television) where the numbers are dropping. Their problem is that us viewers now use the Internet more than we watch TV or read magazines. Instead of watching other people talk, we're getting our own word out. That used to mean message boards, the best place to hold online conversations. But now that we have our own personal printing presses -- blogs! -- better watch out. And the world is watching. This is why I've often thought that Dooce is more than a brilliant blogger. She's a metaphor for what's happening to the media and the value of what mommybloggers are writing--to advertisers as well as to readers. She's the Saturday keynote speaker at the SXSW conference. That says a great deal." (Read the rest of the interview.)

The scary part was writing a mommyblog of my own. Let's be clear: The mommybloggers who attended BlogHer include some of the best wits and writing in the blogging bidness. So I let someone else write it: My nine-year-old. Hey, why invent my own material, I told myself, when his is better. See what I mean? Here's an excerpt:

"....There's nothing like Mother Nature to bring a girl down a peg. A few days later, the flaws in my teaching moment were revealed, as so many things are, in the frozen food section of the local grocery. As I rounded the corner of one aisle, my son looked up at me from the front seat of the grocery cart where he had been playing with his seatbelt. "MOMMY?" he inquired, in that loud, piercing outside voice he favored those days. I scuse-me'd past the cart of an older man who was waist deep into the ice cream, his back to us. I was headed for the pie. ""Uh-huh baby?" I said as I opened the freezer to check out the goods. "SO YOU'RE SAYING THAT MEN HAVE A..." Read the rest.

Someday my son will either forgive me - or not. Meanwhile, it's nice to have a draft of the stories I can tell when I'm also part of the Grandma-ocracy. I'm beholden to the mommybloggers for making a home for it.

Happy holidays to you and yours. I won't post again on Surfette until the week of Dec. 26.

Comments

[jenB]

they asked me to send them a nice comment about you, but their request went into my spam filter and then got lost in the shuffle on insanity. apologies to you. i am glad for the interview. i bet you are a great mum. :-)

xo