Our Mommyhood

By Alyson, Contributor, Common Sense, Dancing (@AMLanders)

Happy New Year! A time for beginning anew, forming new habits and making resolutions. I’ll spare you my list of things like “eat better,” “iron more”  and “shave my legs at least 2x/week.” Instead, I invite you to consider one of my blogging resolutions: in addition to simply “blog more,” I’m committing to blogging more.

I still think of myself as a “new” blogger. When does that wear off? I haven’t seen a timetable from The Powers That Be. At any rate, I’m still new. And I feel pressured — by my own self, of course — to write things that are witty, moving, thought-provoking and important on a weekly, if not daily basis.

But “witty, moving” et al. are content issues, I realize. One of my major writing bugs, however, is: Why, oh why, can I NOT get through a blog entry without some kind of grammar or spelling or punctuation issue sneaking through the draft stage and making it out into the Big Time of published entry?

It kills me. I write, edit, write, edit, preview it, edit more, write more, spell check and hit Publish. And .25 seconds after the, “Your post has been published” message, what do I see? Of course: some horrendous affront to English. (I’m hoping that the wonderful women of OMH will treat this piece kindly and proof it for me so that this piece doesn’t become evidence of my troubles. {Editor’s Note: Done})

Confession: I am a self-identified Language Snob. I know this. I accept this. I don’t always love it, since it leaves me scratching my head during my reading of just about anything: Why did the NYT editors choose to punctuate that sentence that way? Why that word choice and not this one; I lose big reading comprehension points because I get hung up in mechanics. This is less important when reading, say, People magazine, but a little bit of a problem when reading information that I actually need, like the boys’ dress code, or field trip details or whose turn it is for snack. (Dammit — I just caught myself using “who’s” in that previous sentence instead of “whose.” But at least it didn’t get published.)

With regard to you other writers out there, I have no beef with you. I get that there are stylistic differences among us and that some of you are not burdened by my baggage regarding the appropriate use of apostrophe marks and semi colons. And I mean that; it’s my baggage. I really do know that it’s my personal tic.

I know that what I write won’t interest everyone. Who cares about my Doodle Entourage except me? I’m sure there are at least 3 readers Out There who have some concerns about my attachment to the freak show that is Snooki. But while I can’t interest all the people all the time, I should probably ensure that what I do write is acceptable written English. And from what I catch on my blog after “Publish,” I’ve got some work to do.

What about you? Do you frequently scream, “Aaargh” after you Publish and then have to edit further? (Or is it farther? See? I’ve got a problem.)

Here’s to wonderful blogging adventures in 2011!!

Alyson is a SAHM mom to 4 children, although the “S” part of that is often a misnomer. She’s normally in the car, shuttling kids or their tuff between here and there. She likes reading good blogs, 70′s music, salty snacks as opposed to sugary (except brownies — give her a good fudgey brownie any time), and her Doodledogs. She is still trying figure out what the heck CSS and HTML can do for her, what actually happens when a blog “crashes” (and how to prevent it even if you don’t understand it), and the width of her sidebar(s). (Her blog sidebars, that is. Her personal sidebars are way wider than she’d like.) You can read more about her real and ridiculous life at Common Sense, Dancing.

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