Whenever we think of blogging, we usually think of twenty-somethings excitedly punching away at their keyboards. Alternatively, of course, it could be a celebrity such as the Big B. I think of myself as being closer to being a celebrity than a twenty-something. Given that I’m not a celebrity at all, by any standards, you know how far away I am from being 20.
As a parent of two children, I feel that blogging parents have substantially different dynamics, priorities, and criteria when it comes to: How to blog, What to blog about, and most importantly: When to blog.
Of course you could be a father of two, or for that matter 20, and not be truly involved in your children’s upbringing. That is not the kind of blogging parent I’m talking about. I’m talking about a highly involved, participative parent, who regards parenting as the primary occupation.
If that is the case, then how does such a parent also become a good blogger?
The biggest challenge is in terms of finding the time to blog. For instance, bloggers, especially Indian bloggers, tend to do a lot of their blogging activity at night. Other than the fact that most of us find free time at night, the time zone difference between India and the western world, makes us want to be online at night, when many of our western compatriots / clients / peers are online too.
But that is precisely the time when our children are trying to get some sleep. And when Papa is online, children, especially those in my children’s age group, always assume that Papa is playing a game on FaceBook. And they want to play too. And they do not want to sleep early and wake up in time to go to school.
So Papa has to lie down next to them, to get them to sleep. And, as is usually the case, Papa falls asleep before the children do. This is a common experience for me. Is this something that you have experienced too?
What is the solution? The way things have evolved for me over the past five years of blogging, I need to be far more systematic in my planning. For instance, if I get a spare hour in the morning, I need to be ready to dive in and write a blog post or two, and on a good day, three. I cannot wait for inspiration to come and strike me so that I write a blog post.
Of course, let me not discourage the parents to be, by making them think that parenthood would be the end of their blogging life. Quite the contrary.
If you are a budding blogger, you have often heard blogging gurus tell you that you must blog about something that you are really passionate about.
In the case of parents, one common issue that they are really passionate about is parenting itself. And, when such a passionate parent blogs about parenting, there are equally passionate parents on the other end reading about parenting. That is what led me to create a blog on parenting, especially for the new parent.
Yet another interesting dimension of blogging as a parent is that we always have to take blogging seriously. By seriously I mean that if we are trying to make a living off our blog, we are not likely to try to go out and con Google with the latest SEO fad that we just heard about on the Internet. Though conning Google may work in the rare one-off case, we are in this for the long haul. We see the income generated from our blog as actually supporting the future of our children. As a result we are dead serious about it.
What have been your experiences of blogging as a parent? If you are blogging parent, I hope you will share in the comment box below.
Guest blogger : Ajeet Khurana is a full-time dad. He mentors entrepreneurs, writes, invests, teaches, and blogs in his spare time. For kicks, he set up a blog on parenting and the like. You can also read another interested by him – Is Good Writing Important for Bloggers?
As a middleaged father of two children – one with special needs – I always thought the first and foremost thing about people of my age is to groom the next generation for the future – including education, their character building, inducting culture, social behavior and so on. Even my regular job – forget alone blogging – comes as the next priority.
Blogging for me is a secondary thing that can be discarded any time. However, I see the potential of taking up that as a career in which case I don’t intend to spend all my life in front of the puter. May be 2-3 hours a day 🙂
Calling all blogging parents: Do share your experiences about the specials issues you share 🙂
Being a blogging parent would be a hard time, to cope up with the online things when you are being busy offline too to manage everything. A very great write-up, explaining something that a blogging parent really feels.
Thanks. It is hard, but do not let that discourage you. It is certainly possible to be a successful parent and a successful blogger simultaneously.
I’m not a blogging parent. Pretty much all my time is my own, and I still find I don’t blog as much as I’d like.
Frankly from what I’ve seen, it’s totally exhausting bringing up kids. I’m amazed that anyone has any time or energy left to do anything else after catering to their needs.
Matt, No real blogger finds as much time to blog as she/he would like to 🙂 But like I said in an earlier comment, do not let the fear of exhaustion make you stay away from the rewards of parenting.
On 08-03-2011, we got blessed with a baby boy and believe me the whole life is changed. Blogging which was always the main priority was totally converted into parenting where i was giving my maximum time on the baby. Now its all about time management and making sure that blogging work and baby relationship are both managed perfectly to ensure none of these are not left out.
Thanks for the writeup. I definitely agree with what you are saying. I have been talking about this subject a lot lately with my father so hopefully this will get him to see my point of view. Fingers crossed!
Well, actually, blogging is not itself an easy task and after getting married and having children and doing blogging along with it become much more tougher. But, its all about how you management and ensure that you don’t miss any of them.
As a blogger, I found a variety of informations available at Amitbhawani.com. This website will surely encourage young bloggers in pursuing their challenges & meeting their needs.
Frankly you have brought up the very genuine issues out. Though i am far way behind of being a parent, I will make sure I read this story at first when i become a father in future. 🙂
Hi, i’m zack from bangalore, i have a 10 months aged blog (www.lolfollows.com) with custom domain name (in blogger),
now i would like to convert my blog into a website by the using same domain name …. is it possible to do….???
blogger will agree to convert my blog into a website…….?????
Well Considering the blogging i have just started seeing the world.. so being a parent is really far from me at least from the present point of view. Will try to be a Great parent very soon :p