If you are a parent and you’ve been thinking of starting a blog, writing for parenting magazines, or becoming a social media influencer in the parent sphere, keep reading.
In 2009, I began writing my personal parent blog A Little Bit of Momsense. My toddler was not yet three years old, and I had a newborn. In 2006, when my first child was born and I became a stay-at-home mom, I started reading a lot of blogs. Eventually, I decided I wanted my own.
I didn’t know what to share at first, but I wanted a space online where I could just write. A blog seemed like a great way to share snippets of my motherhood journey, my life, and my thoughts and feelings, while still maintaining some privacy.
This began an unexpected career as a blogger, freelance writer and content strategist (helping others with their own business content online).
In the early days of parenting blogging (‘mom blogging’), there were conferences and events to meet up at. Brands like Fisher Price and Huggies would pay money for sponsored posts or event activations or send us free items to build trust and get more social shares, referrals and links.
We all seemed to make it up as we went along, but many of us were making money, whether as a side job or as a full-on business. It was exciting, to be honest! But it was also a lot of work (and still is). Eventually, blogs were receiving fewer offers for sponsored posts, and that budget went to Instagram posts and influencers.
In the beginning, I made one major decision. As a parent blogger, I would share stories and certainly my own experience and thoughts, but I wouldn’t share my kids' names or faces and kept most of their specific stories private. There were photos of them walking away or their hands, but not photos to identify them. In the early days of my blog, I didn’t even put my last name on my writing until I started to freelance and was actually growing my business.
Fifteen years later, I have no regrets about keeping the kids offline. They’ve participated in campaigns in a variety of ways, and certainly enjoyed some of my work perks (free stuff) and disliked others (me taking photos of food or hotel rooms while they wait).
If you are considering becoming a parenting influencer online, or a blogger, only you can decide how much or how little to share. But you should really consider what it may mean in the future for your entire family. Talk to them about the possible implications and, if your kids are old enough to understand, ask what they’d be comfortable with sharing. You should also keep in mind the pressure that comes with it. It’s a lot of work to constantly show up online and share.
The best way I can describe my approach is that I am authentic and it’s ‘me’ who shows up - but it’s edited. Because I do hold back.
There are ways to grow without including faces or names — I am confident of that because I’ve seen it. Plus, you’ll get very creative!
Whatever you decide, this continues to be an interesting, exciting, and at times exhausting space. Have fun with it, but don’t feel like you have to give everything over to the world. Take that advice from an old-timey mom blogger.
Related resources:
- The impact of sharenting – Video Q&A with MediaSmarts’ Dr. Kara Brisson-Boivin
- Privacy Ethics article
- How Marketers Target Kids article
- Privacy Pirates – Game
- Data Defenders – Game
- Wacky Media Songs: “Just Another Influencer”