Mummy Porn

I don't think I am guilty of mommy porn.

Of writing glibly of days with the kids, the family, of homeschooling, of Catholicism, as though it all fits together. Always. No doubts, schisms, fights, despair.

I try to make this blog real and not a form of fantasy, nor a form of life porn.

I blog to share with friends, family, new friends, people I will never meet..to share the ins and outs of life.

I blog for myself.

I share some intimacies, some secrets but not others.

There are few guidelines as to which secrets I will choose to share and which others I will hide. Privacy of other individuals, of course, is important to me and the protection of this privacy is one of my guidelines.

Is sharing some intimaces, some secrets, a method of encouraging blogging voyeurism? Again, I hope not.

I hope, instead, to help others, in the sense that being real helps others.

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. Rollo May

And blogging helps me. I think and find solutions while writing. While blogging.

Writing about an idea frees me of it. Thinking about it is a circle of repetitions. Mason Cooley

Or read George Orwell on Why I Write ~

..I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in -- at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own -- but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

1. Sheer egoism...

2. Aesthetic enthusiasm...

3. Historical impulse...

4. Political purpose ...

I hope my blogging is not mummy porn, blogging voyeurism or sheer egoism.

I think I blog, I write, for historical impulse - writing things down for prosperity. For memories.To keep in touch with others.

For aesthetic considerations - I like to write, to mess about with words, to have some fun in sharing ideas and activities and humour with others, to play with writing little aphorisms.

For political purpose - okay, I am laughing at myself here but, perhaps, mildy, in a tiny way, like a mustard seed, my blogging on homeschooling, on education, on our Faith, on body image, on parenting, on being a woman/wife/mother today will help not only me but also another.

And, unlike those perfect superstar working mums ( dang, I want their bodies!) , unlike those darling, sweet, nurturing, ( always inspiring to me) other homeschool blogging mums , I do not have it all together. Sometimes, I have many things together, juggle many balls at once , and I do this kinda well. Other times I can't even get one thing together.

Mostly, our life is a mish mash of activities, of life and liturgy and learning. And this is what I aim to share when blogging.

Not mummy porn.