Newbie Tuesday: Getting the balance right

Welcome back to another round-up of the week’s best posts from new bloggers, and some thoughts from more seasoned writers on getting the Blog-Life balance right. If you haven’t realised it yet, it is all too easy to get sucked into your blog and the community around it, and although we are big fans of growing our community, it can impact on other aspects of our lives. Many is the time I have found myself resorting to the one-eyed babysitter to occupy my children whilst I finish a post, or visiting my favourit blogs instead of keeping my children company whilst they eat tea. And the amount of post-midnight tweets I’ve done after promising myself an early night would add up to a full week’s lost sleep!

So how do you get the balance right? How do you nurture a fledgeling blog into a flourishing community without losing perspective and neglecting other areas of your life?  Over on the BritMums Forum this week Crystal Jigsaw claims that once you are obsessed with blogging activity it will take something drastic to make you stand back and reassess your priorities, so I was interested to read a post on Mamacook, whose blog just turned one year old last week, before the rot sets in and my nerves are wrecked by unhappy family! She claims we can save time by multi-tasking and mopping up minutes we would otherwise waste. She limits herself to an hour a day on blog-related activity, and her blog is well-frequented, so maybe that is enough? Certainly her approach to household activities is one which could strengthen family bonds, by bringing everyone together to get jobs done and share meals.

So, if you haven’t used up your allotted blog-time yet today, here are some posts from great new bloggers you may wish to spend a few minutes with. One mum who doesn’t have enough time in her day is struggling with the question of whether or not to have another baby. A Mum’s Internal Monologue is a beautifully written blog which is disarming in its frank and open exploration of the writer’s feelings about parenthood. Similarly, I was engrossed by Chapters of Claire and her very honest post about difficult routes to parenthood, and the possible link to post-natal anxiety. It is incredible how many Mums go through this.

On a lighter note, You’re Not from Round Here is trying to lighten the load by getting her toddler to help tidy up her toys. Take a look at how successful she was 😉 And those of you who are losing sleep over their new baby (the blog kind or the real kind) will want to read Bot Bot Mama‘s hilarious take on the matter.

Finally, and ever one to encourage Dads into blogging I met Father, Son and the odd Blog Post last week. He joined in with a meme about vintage fashion, proving that it is not just the ladies who know how to dress. I am still reeling at his alternative take on the matter!

Well, that’s me done for this week, but as I forge my way through Blogland on my quest to find great new bloggers, please come and say hi. Introduce yourseves @ActuallyMummy and @BritMums on twitter, and let me know what matters to you as a newer blogger. In the meantime, take a look at the forum, where I am trying to figure out how much of our children’s life stories we inject into our blogs. Mine is pretty much all my children, but you may have a different focus. Come over and join in the discussion.

Image source: Working out work

About Helen Wills

Helen Wills is a mum of 2 children in primary school and blogs at Actually Mummy on parenting issues, school, travel, and life according to the kids. Since starting her blog in 2011, Helen has won 2 national awards, and puts a lot of her success down to the amazing online community of bloggers at BritMums. As her children grow older, her writing is increasingly influenced by their opinions, and her blog reflects this drive to get the most out of family life. Helen works from home in copywriting and social media. She is on Twitter @actuallymummy.

• Mail
|
• Web
|
• Twitter
|
• Facebook
|
• More Posts(40)