What is Sceptical Mum?

Why blog about motherhood? And why so sceptical?

The short answer:

I was on maternity leave and I got bored.

 

The long answer:

Where in the past the likes of Samuel Pepys kept detailed memoirs of historic events, the rarity of which captured the imaginations of generations to come, these days any Tom, Dick or Harry can write a blog and publish any random thought for all the world to see.

Parent blogging in particular is huge. Or should I say “mummy blogging”?

In the early days of parenthood I found myself living in a new house, in a new area where I didn’t know anyone, and where the TV hadn’t yet been hooked up. The internet was my only company…

I soon discovered that the answer to any question can be found online: feeding problems, where to meet other mums, what some other mum you never met thinks about a topic you vaguely read about on your phone while feeding at 3am… On the internet, everyone can have their say, and does!

Search the term ‘mum blog’ on Google and there are thousands of websites where parents tell you every intimate detail of their children’s lives: what they ate for lunch; what they did at school; how well they sleep; even how many times a day they poo! Yes, really.

What I discovered in my bored meanderings on the internet, is that there were many, many sites and blogs for me to connect with other mums. But none of those sites seemed to connect with me.

I loved being a mum, but didn’t want it to define me entirely. I enjoyed hanging out with my son, but there’s a limit to how often you can sing twinkle twinkle before you want to throw something at someone’s head!

Surely there were other people like me who not only had to go back to work full-time, but wanted to go back to work? Surely there were other parents out there who saw through the BS of so many modern parenting theories? Surely there were other mums who  could see that wiping faeces off a baby’s backside is a disgusting necessity and not part of a miraculous, beautiful fairy tale of parenthood.

So, since I’d always fancied having a go at writing, I started my own blog. If I couldn’t find what I wanted on the web, maybe I could do it myself.

I hope you enjoy it.