Welcome to the ‘Hood

So, um, you’ve heard of blogging, right? You know, that thing where people go online and write nasty things about their co-workers or post pictures of their cleavage and get fired and then get book deals? Where teenagers keep public diaries about who they’re crushing on and talk smack about Lindsay Lohan and plot world domination?

Yeah. That thing. Blogging.

So, hey, guess what? You’re reading a blog RIGHT NOW.

That’s right. My name is Catherine – aka Her Bad Mother – and I am a blogger.

Now you know.

I hope that you’ll still like me. Because here’s the thing: I’m a different kind of blogger. I don’t post pictures of my cleavage (not usually), I don’t write about my co-workers (not anymore, anyway) and I (mostly) don’t talk smack about celebrities (but if you’re looking for that sort of thing, you can get it from Cheaty over here). And the only person on this blog who is plotting world domination is my ten-month old daughter, the Child Currently Known as WonderBaby.

What I do blog about: being a mother.

I’m what’s known in the blogosphere as a mommy-blogger (a term that is controversial, but we’ll save that discussion for another day.) I write about my experiences as a new mother, and about the issues and concerns that are relevant to my life as new mother. And when I’m not writing about these things (and, of course, when I am not parenting), I read other blogs by parents. About their experiences with, among other things, sleep issues and swaddling and weaning and what it means to be a stay-at-home-feminist or a work-away-from-home-traditionalist and – always, always – how much they love their children and all of the other whys and wherefores of parenthood.

And in writing and reading, in the blogosphere, about the experience of parenthood, I’ve become part of a community – a community wherein I get to share my own experiences of parenthood and where I get to hear about and talk about the experiences of other parents. And this community has been a joy, a consolation and a life-saver – it has become my village, the place where I go when I need advice or support or a laugh or a sympathetic ear. When I was a brand new mom and didn’t know any other brand new moms, this is where I found other women who were struggling with weird night sweats and sore boobs and exhaustion and depression and the mind-bending fear that comes with loving another human being so completely. It’s where I found other women who could complain and laugh about some of the harder parts of new motherhood in one stroke of the keyboard. It’s where I found other women and men like me – parents who love their children and love talking about their children and their experience of parenting, and who love sharing that love and that experience as widely as possible.

And now I want to share it with you.

This space is going to be home base for exploring, together, the Canadian mommy-blogging neighbourhood. Every week, a couple of times a week, we’ll take a look at what mom bloggers (and, hopefully, some dad bloggers) are talking about. We’ll meet new moms, expectant moms, and parents of toddlers, of teens, and of twins. We’ll meet urban parents and rural parents, east coast parents and west coast parents, home-schoolers and private-schoolers. We’ll meet stay-at-home-moms and stay-at-home-dads and work-at-home-dads and work-away-from-home-moms and all combinations in between. If they’re Canadian parents and they’re blogging, I’ll find them and introduce them to you.

And you’ll see what I mean about this community thing.

Welcome to the Mother ‘Hood.

(Oh, and? About this community thing? It’s like a big online conversation – you’ll have more fun and feel more involved if you join in. So don’t hesitate to leave comments. Tell me what kinds of parent blogs you’d like to read about. Tell me what you think of this whole blogging thing. Pull up a chair and pour yourself a drink and we’ll taaahlk. That’s what this is all about.

So again – welcome. This is gonna be fun.)