January 21, 2019

Why I Don't Want to be a Mummy Blogger

Can I be honest with you? As in, really honest? I do NOT want to be a Mummy Blogger. There is nothing within me that wants to be referred to as a Mummy Blogger (or Mommy Blogger for the Americans). You can call me a Blogger who's a Mother/Mum/Mom, but please do not refer to me as a Mummy Blogger. I realize it might look like I dislike those who are Mummy Bloggers, but I really don't. More grease, spit up, powder, and general children bodily fluids to your elbows! You guys rock! I'm sure you're wondering why Mummy Blogging is not for me? Well, scroll down to see why.





  1. I want to be ME first, before MUMMY. A lot of you know that my husband and I tried for a while before we were able to conceive (see post here if you're not familiar with the story). When we finally and surprisingly got pregnant, I was ecstatic and looked forward to having my precious daughter. Little Miss Cocoa is easily in the Top 3 things that have happened to me in life. So many people prayed for me while I was trying to conceive and share my joy whenever I put up a post about her or share her antics on social media.


    When I had my personal crisis in the past year and a half, my creativity suffered immensely. An easy fix, I was told by wellmeaning people, was to blog and post about Cocoa. As much as I do enjoy sharing about her, I didn't want to become one of those women who only talks or writes about her child(ren). I am a mother now, yes! And I love it! But I'm also ME! I don't want to lose sight of who I am, just because I have a beautiful daughter. I want my personality to shine through my blog, and I still want to share different aspects of my life, and not just focus on her. Does this make sense to you?
  2. I did not want to alienate my readers who don't have children. I understand that as I grow and evolve, I will (and I have) lost some followers who just don't relate to my present journey as is. I myself have unfollowed some blogs and people on social media because I don't really find anything in common with them, or anything that interests me. I do know that a lot of people without children enjoy my updates about Little Miss Cocoa, and I really appreciate the love.


    However, I don't want my posts to be solely about Cocoa, because I believe that I would alienate a good segment of my audience. It almost seems a little selfish, but I promise you I mean it from a good place. As much as I write for myself, I always have my audience in mind.
  3. I don't want to exploit Cocoa. Before I start this point, please note that I don't think that Mummy Bloggers in general are exploiting their children. Maybe a small fraction are, but I believe a large majority are not. Now, onto my point. I have mentioned that I love sharing snippets of Little Miss Cocoa's life. Admittedly, whenever I post a video or photo of her on Instagram, I tend to get a lot more likes and engagement, than if it's just plain old me. Chasing and wanting those likes can get quite addictive if I'm being very honest. And if I'm all about chasing the likes, it would be easy for me to just keep posting Cocoa all over my social media - at which point, I believe it becomes exploitation. I never want to share Little Miss Cocoa because of a benefit to ME! I never want to exploit her for my own selfish reasons. And that's a big part of why Mummy Blogging is not for me.
With all of the above being said, I do understand why some bloggers pivot towards becoming Mummy Bloggers. 

For some, it's just a way to journal their experiences - and it would be great to look back and see what you went through. It may also be fun for the children to have this piece of their mothers that they can look through when they're older.

Others may be looking to inspire other mothers. They may put up inspirational posts about A Day in the Life of a Working Mum, how to choose between a Home Daycare or Regular Daycare, Breastfeeding Experience, How to Wean a Baby, Traveling with Children, Easy Meals for Toddlers, or Sleep Training a Toddler, etc. These kinds of posts inform other mothers on different approaches to motherhood, based on the bloggers' experiences. 

Still other Mummy Bloggers may just be doing it for the Branding and Monetization appeal. A lot of Mummy Bloggers find that it's easier to work with brands because of their niche; or they find other ways to monetize - writing books on nutrition and recipes, creating products that they think other mothers would find useful, or even teaching courses and/or coaching other mums. The potential to make money is endless (and is making me reconsider this whole Mummy Blogging thing - except, see point 3 above).

What do you think about Mummy Bloggers? Are you a mummy blogger? If yes, why do you it? If no, why not? Let's have a conversation. 

5 comments:

  1. I feel the same way. I am neither a mother nor a blogger but I recently saw a post by one of those instagram kid accounts and the mom posted something along the lines of "you don't know how hard this child (3-year-old) works". I was so startled and unsettled with the post that I seriously considered unfollowing them. I began to see that the child did seem tired in some previous posts. It just seems like a very mild form of child labour.

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    1. Oh wow. I didn't even think about THAT! I guess it's just like child actors - it can be a lot of pressure and work on them. Sometimes even Cocoa is not interested in my wanting to take photos or videos of her, so I can understand other children not wanting to "work"

      Thanks for contributing this interesting point!

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  2. I'm not necessarily uncomfortable with mommy bloggers, but I am uncomfortable with the social media mommies and for reason number 3 above: they exploit the poor kids. I won't lie, I LOVE seeing those pictures and videos of adorable kids; they bring JOY lol. But then I read this expose of some parents that exploit their kids, and basically harass them into making videos just for the money. It made me feel so bad that since then I haven't returned to that particular page. Then there was a recent one when this mommy complained that one of her kids didn't get as much likes as his siblings. That was particularly despicable. So yeah that's it. When regular folks post their kids here and there, I honestly don't mind at all. You know, social media is about ALL of our lives, after all?

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    1. Oooh, I'd like to see the expose you read, so I can add it to my Lovely Links one of these days. Could you please email it to me?

      I think it's sad about the mum complaining about one of her children not getting likes. I mean, I can understand why she's wondering about it, but then what message is it sending to her son? At some point even, he's going to be old enough to check and compare his likes to his siblings.

      I think there's a very very very fine line and it's easy to cross it. There should be checks and balances to ensure that while you share your child on social media, you're not USING them.

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    2. Sure Berry,
      I will send you the links now!

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