On September the 11th, less than 2 months ago, I made my very first blog post in this blog. Today, I am posting my 50th. Of course, some things have changed in that short time – things are always changing when you have an infant. Squirm is nearly 12 weeks old and is less into the toy elephant and more into anything he can fit into his mouth. I can drive again after the 6 weeks after my c-section. And I discovered an awesome community of people online.

What have I Learned?

• Posting every day or almost every day isn’t too hard with a little preparation. The scheduling tool is brilliant.
• Get involved with link ups. It’s the best way to meet other awesome bloggers
• Don’t spend all day obsessively refreshing the stats page. it’s just sad
• Use photos – they look pretty
• Reply to comments as much as possible
• Link up with Facebook and Twitter – another way to meet people
• Start saving to go to a blogging conference some day 🙂
• I really want a smart phone to make taking pictures easier
• I probably should organise some business cards – people are always interested in the blog when I talk to them about it 🙂

Because I’m pretty stoked that this is my 50th post, I decided to tell you 5 things you may not know about me:

1. I’m a big geek when it comes to Buffy, West Wing, Spooks, Harry Potter and Glee
2. I’ve been on the internet since around 1996. I started with very basic web pages and taught myself basic html
3. I met Mr Pilot when we both worked at the Myer Centre Eatery
4. Although my Bachelor of Arts had a major in history, one of my favourite classes was an American Politics class
5. My favourite colours have been green and pink for a while, but I’m developing a real affection for nice blues at the moment

Looking for me elsewhere?

Facebook – Adventure of a Subversive Reader
Twitter – @subversiveread
Email – subversive reader@gmail.com

Or a post in which I link to other examples of blogs . . .

On Monday night, I, like a lot of other bloggers watched Media Watch. It was a pretty mild episode (for Media Watch, anyway) but one thing has stuck with me – other people dislike the ‘Mummy Blog’ name that is so often given to us.

Being new to this blogging community (hey, being new to being a mother!), I didn’t realise that other people also felt this way. “Mummy blogger” always felt a big patronising and over-cute, like being a mother was the only thing we ever blogged about, while decorating our blogs with pictures of pink and blue booties. (That’s a terrible simile. I apologise for that. Also, booties in Qld Spring and Summer – not so much of a thing at the moment)

However, I can totally understand the desire for classification when it comes to blogs. After all, at the end of 2011 there were 181 million blogs in the world. So, when someone goes looking for a blog to read, they’re probably looking for a certain type of blog, or a blog written by a certain type of person.

So what is an alternative to the ‘mummy blogger’ moniker?

I like the idea of being ‘classified’ or named by what we write. After all, bloggers who blog about science would be science or scientific bloggers and bloggers who blog about places in the world are travel bloggers. This might mean that we should be called ‘parenting bloggers’ except very few of the blogs I read talk only about parenting. Because very few of them bloggers I read are defined by their parenthood status alone. In fact, because we are all people of many interests and loves, we very rarely stick to only one topic.

For example, Documenting Delight (one of my very favourite blogs), could rightfully be called a photography blog – most of the entries are photos and they are beautifully done. But they aren’t just photos. Each one is a tiny story about Georgia and her lovely family. And her recent series of posts about the family trip to the Philippines would be worthy of any travel blog. She is not trapped into one particular subject.

Then there’s This Charming Mum and Enid Bite’Em. Both have book heavy blogs (probably one of the reasons I enjoy reading them so much). But This Charming Mum has an awesome weekly series of guest posts about hobbies and occasional forays into whatever she feels like writing. And over at Enid Bite’Em, you might go on a day trip in Tasmania or learn much more about Roller Derby.

Another friend (I’m not sure how public she wishes her blog to get, so I’m not linking at this point in time) blogs amazing baby food recipes, and then blogs about her son’s lost sock and an act of kindness that returned it.

Most of us like blogging about our children. We like sharing our stories, and often get feedback – building a community of knowledge. But we also like talking about books, fashion, shopping, travel, home decorating, movies, music, great moments in our lives and even ukuleles. All the things that make up our lives.

I thought about a few possibilities to rename us away from the ‘mummy blogger’. I thought of parenting blogger and family blogger. I joked about unicorn blogger and laughed at embedded domestic reporter. But, just now, as I finish writing this post, I think I might have thought of a name I’m proud to be called.

I’m a life blogger.

A Life Blogger’s Tools

Are you a life blogger too? Or have you got another name you’re proud of?