Mommy Blogger Drama 2016

Ugh, I really didn’t want to even flick an eyeball in the direction of the Blogger Drama 2016. But, I haven’t been able to let it go. I’ve sat on it, discussing amongst friends, since Sunday. Sigh, after a sleepless night, last night, I decided to just address my feelings about this and get it off my chest so I can sleep tonight. Because a lady of my advancing years needs all the rest she can get.

I’m not going to link to the blogger article in question. Most of you, my blogger friends, know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, Google Mommy Blogs Suck or something along those lines, take a deep breath and maybe a Xanax and read.

I’ve been in the blogging space since 2007. Almost 10 years. Probably the most long-lived hobby, aside from ballet and writing, that I’ve ever stuck with. Well, intermittently. I go through long phases of non-blogging but I’m always found on Facebook talking to my blogging friends. So, I’m still deeply entrenched within the sphere ‘o blogs.

There have been numerous mom blog dramas periodically since I started blogging so this is really nothing new. It’s just the latest and not-so-greatest. Wow though..it just really, really upset me and many of my friends because of the outrageousness of it.

I’m not even going to get into the way the bloggers post was written because I’m not one to critique the writing style of others. If you want to come across as angry, be my guest.

I agreed with many of the points the blogger made in regards to blogging. I mean, there have been times where I’ve felt like a sell-out (to myself, not to the industry) because I’ve done round-ups or have written HONEST reviews I haven’t been proud of. But, you know what? I take a deep breath and move onto the next thing, vowing to myself that it will never happen again instead of taking to my ‘sucky’ little blog to voice my discontent.

My feelings are MY feelings, they don’t embody the entire blogging community. It’s not the entire blogging community that made me do a roundup or a giveaway. I hate doing giveaways, by the way! I don’t do them very often.

It’s MY fault. MINE.

So, when this blogger decided to project her feelings about her sucky blog onto everyone else’s sucky blogs and the sucky bloggers that write them..that pissed me off.

I have so many blogger friends that have created empires because they are fabulous at what they do. How dare this blogger, who is basically a newbie, no matter how successful her blog might be, point angry, bitter, discontent fingers at them? Because they are doing what they need to do, and very well, might I add.

Here’s another thing. There are bloggers out there who actually enjoy doing reviews in exchange for products. And they are actually giving transparent, thoughtful, meaningful, REAL and HONEST reviews on said product. I don’t do a lot of reviews. But, when I accept products for review, I tell it like it is. If I don’t like the product I either a)don’t write about it after discussing with the PR person or b) write about the product and why I didn’t like it. MOST of us tell the truth. Just because she doesn’t she assumed no one does and thus lumped everyone into her miserable lying bubble.

My parents once told me that when someone is a liar, they believe everyone else is lying, as well. That blogger proved their point. Yes, mom (wherever you are) and dad, you were right.

I don’t care if she wrote that post in hopes of it going viral, along with her follow-up rip on the bloggers who got angry with her post…because they both did. Good on her.

I don’t care if she does or doesn’t ever do another review post, lies and all.

I don’t know her. I don’t care to know her, at this point. Hey, I’m sure she’s a great person. But, she’s left a sour feeling and you know what they say about first impressions. I had never heard of her until Sunday and she left a really bad first impression.

I care about how her post negatively impacted an industry that I’ve poured my heart and soul (intermittently) into for almost 10 years. And, I can about my friends who are supporting their families because their blogs are making them money.

I care that traditional media has been waiting for an attack on Mommy Bloggers from another Mommy blogger…because, no matter what she claims, she’s a Mommy Blogger. And, the attack came and media jumped on it because it’s yet another passing “I told you so” notch in their Mommy Blogger hating belt.

Let me assure you, not all bloggers, Mommy or otherwise, falls into the sucky blog category. Maybe our personal blogs aren’t being read as much as we’d like. Or, maybe we don’t care. Maybe we write because we actually want to. And, we review because we actually want to. We have our blogs for whatever personal reasons we have our blogs for. Not all of us our great writers but most of us have stories to tell that we feel, in one way or another, good or bad, needs to be told.

That person, when she ripped apart the community and industry where she claimed to have made thousands of dollars from…she affected all of us in a myriad of ways.

Not that she wasn’t right on some of her points. She was. There definitely needed to be a conversation about how bloggers and PR work with each other. That’s been a necessary thing for years now.

But, she had absolutely NO RIGHT to try to take all of us down with her. Her issues were hers alone, it had nothing to do with the rest of us.

And that, I believe, is why I can’t let this go.

Mom blogs don’t suck. People DO read them. Even when they don’t realize it, they are reading their reviews, or their articles on HuffPo or any other of those online magazines.

More importantly, our community is close knit. Even a blogger like me, who is on the peripheral, has good friends made due to blogging.

And our tribe, the woman bloggers, that is something that blogger will never, ever be able to bring down with her.

You know what? I’m unapologetically a Mommy Blogger. And I’m damn proud.

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