Let’s Try This Again

Warning, this is a long post! I started this post on November 22nd which explains why I said it’s been two months since my last post.

It’s been two months since my last post and I must say that things are good. I look back last year and remember the days when we scrambled to pay bills late and after paying them not having much left over. I honestly don’t know how we did it, but we did it together. During that time, so much was going on, I didn’t feel like blogging here. I was trying to do my thing as as a parenting blogger at Mommy Daddy Blog, so I felt the need to make sure my issues weren’t blasted into the blogosphere. I wanted to keep everything rainbows and lollipops, but we all know life is far from that. I know I like to read happy and uplifting things, the last thing I wanted to do was turn people off. But when you let people into that chapter of your life, your experiences may be comforting to someone who may be going through the same. That’s why I started reading blogs.

I’m working on showing my human side again online. The side I showed before becoming a parent. When Greg and I started Mommy Daddy Blog, I had intentions of running both this blog and that one. I couldn’t keep up. I pushed myself to the side. I started censoring myself in fear of offending readers or the ones who contributed to our cash flow. And I mean it was the little things, not even things that were truly offensive. But I just felt I couldn’t let my true character shine once sponsors came in to the mix. I paid attention to the “image” brands were going for and the other mom bloggers who were climbing the social media ladder. Anything that would give the impression of us not having it together, I simply kept bottled up inside.

I am not the cookie cutter mom in the tv commercials. I’m young and I’m just starting out. I am 23 and Greg is 22. I could care less about any negative thoughts on being young parents or not having a plan in place. Jayden was a surprise, but starting a family was something that we wanted more than anything. He is our everything. Just to give a taste of how badly we wanted kids, our dog had his own bedroom and a wardrobe. We took him wherever we could. I wore him in a sling. Yea. And no, we weren’t one of those couples who compared the struggles of taking care of a pet to the struggles of taking care of a child, but we loved that dog.

Moving on, we are far from the Joneses. And I realize umm we don’t have to be. We are doing a hell of a lot better than many folks who are or were our age with or without kids. But I felt if I wrote about our struggles, opportunities to monetize our blog would not come. The first year of becoming parents was rough financially. We moved to be closer to family, school and job left behind. We’ve resented that move many times. It was like we moved just so that it could be more convenient for family to see Jay. That’s it. And when they saw him, we were coming out there all of the time. Why did we move again?

Some time in between Greg fell out of love with blogging. I’ll let him comment on that if he wishes. I struggled trying to keep things afloat and failed. There’s only so many cutesy picture posts of Jayden that I could post before readers start wondering why sponsors are working with me when the content has gotten so damn bland. I had a hard time taking compliments on something that I wasn’t even proud of. I cringed each time I heard someone tell me how cool it was that both Greg and I blogged together when the last post he wrote was many many months ago.

Things are better since we moved again in September. We are still about the same distance from family and they visit more. Greg’s parents and grandmother pick up Jayden when they can, so we can rejuvenate. Finances are much much better. I realize all of my blogging faux pas and I’m ready to pull myself out of the ditch and continue down the road I veered off of. I’m going back to the basics. That doesn’t mean that I’m no longer participating in sponsored opportunities. Blogging is my business. Running a business is my passion, just not when I am not being myself while doing it. Let me stop and say how thankful I am for my sponsors. I am not blaming them at all for my actions. If it weren’t for them, I don’t know where we’d be. We’ve been truly blessed.

Personal blogging is something that I really enjoyed for 6 years. I tried something new (mom blogging as I perceived it) and it didn’t work. It’s time to move on. I will be ringing in the new year with intentions of keeping it real. It’s the only way I can be a confident and passionate blogger. Starting over in a sense kinda worried me. But you know what? It’s not about the blog and stats you’ve built. It’s about the person behind the blog. I know my following will meet me here. As I continue to write, traffic from search engines and other sources will trickle in. If I cannot build brand relationships based on being myself, then I don’t need them. Simple as that.

Related Post: Switching Gears To Fuel My Passion