Come Visit Me At Parenting Squad!

I started this blog last year in an effort to make some space in my life for myself. 

So that I would have something, anything, that was just about me -- and not about my much-loved, but often very demanding (and emotionally draining) husband and children. 

Did I really just write that down for all the world to read???  Yes, yes I did.  Because it's true.  Be honest, aren't your children and your spouse emotionally draining at times too? 

I started this blog so that I could have a place to express my opinions on current events and parenting topics that interest me without spouting off to people who don't really care or driving my husband crazy with rants about issues that he really doesn't understand. 

And because I realized that most of my Facebook friends could care less about links to articles about childbirth or feminism or mothering, and were probably going to start defriending me if I didn't stop sharing them.

Sharing links that I love via Sunday Surf posts has been one of my favorite parts of writing St. Louis Smart Mama.

I started this blog because I wanted to start writing again. 

Because I loved to write when I was in high school and college, and I loved teaching kids about writing when I worked as a teacher and a tutor.  But then I had babies and stopped working and I stopped writing too.  In retrospect, it was silly.  Not that I stopped working, but that I stopped writing.  I wish that I had started writing about parenting and motherhood when my daughter was a baby and I was new to the whole gig.  It would be interesting to look back and read what I had written from a fresh-eyed, optimistic, new mom perspective. 

But I think that I needed time to grow into the role of mother, and to realize that my perspective is valuable and that I can say things that other parents will find helpful and/or interesting.  And to learn to not care if people read what I've written and don't agree with me at all and take it upon themselves to tell me how I've done everything wrong. 

Which they will do when you blog.  Or any time you step out of your house really.  It seems that once you're a parent, you're considered fair game for target practice.  I hate to burst your bubble, but if you're expecting you might as well just go ahead and paint a big bullseye on your back. 

I started this blog as a place to practice writing. 

Some of the posts are decent; some of them I don't care for.  Some are informational because I wanted to practice writing the types of articles you find in local parenting magazines; a lot of others are rambling, first-person, stream-of-consciousness type narratives where I really don't say much of anything.

When I started blogging, I wasn't really sure what kind of writing I wanted to do.  And at this point, St. Louis Smart Mama is still just a random assortment of many different types of posts.  I'm very sloooowly working my way towards finding some sort of voice.  Am I funny?  Informative?  Dark?  What's my hook that makes people want to read? 

I still have no freakin' clue.     

But, just by starting this little blog, I found my way to a real freelance job where I get paid to write. 

It's not a big job, or a fancy job, or a job where I get to be the high-powered career woman that my high school guidance counselor was convinced I would become.  It's not even a job that's going to pay for much more than a cart of groceries every month, but it's an opportunity to do something that I love and be more than just a mom. 

That last part is dripping with sarcasm, but no, I'm not going to take the time right now to dissect that phrase and just how much is wrong with it . . . 

So if I'm blogging here a bit less, it's because I'm blogging somewhere else a bit more.  I hope to continue to write here, too, because it's a great place to shoot my mouth off about opinions that no one really cares about, and because there's lots of great local St. Louis stuff that really deserves to be written about.  Stuff that needs to be written about, and I can't say that I've done a very good job thus far. 

Where are all the St. Louis mom blogs?  Am I missing them?  Are they out there?  Blogs are such a great way to share information that I wish there were more local ones.  If you write one, or if you know of one, please send me the link so that I can follow it and add it to my blogroll. 

And if you can't find me here as much, come on over and visit me at Parenting Squad.  Today I've got a post up asking Would You Buy Your Child A Doll That Gives Birth?