Here's the REAL reason why I had a kid

I needed something to blog about and as a narcissist, I was running out of ideas to keep people interested.

Wow. I'm glad to get that off my damn chest. Now I can get back to surfing the 'Net while my kid shoves her finger in the light socket and crawls down the stairs.

Well, that's apparently what Mommybloggers do according to an article featuring Her Bad Mother in a Canadian newspaper:

For some, giving up blogging is more knotty than just giving up a forum to vent. One of the top parenting blogs, Dooce, written by Salt Lake City mom Heather Armstrong, has been the target of criticism for both its frankness and its evolution into big business. "Dooce" is trademarked and filled with big-money ads - some observers have pegged her earnings to as much as $40,000 (U.S.) a month.

Such income is hard to abandon, says May Friedman, a PhD student at Toronto's York University who is writing a book on the parenting blogosphere. It can be especially complicated for someone such as Ms. Armstrong: Her audience has come to expect her irreverent, potty-mouthed writing, with occasional moments of disdain for her child, Leta.

The commenters are especially hi-larious. "Isn't this another form of pimping?" asks one reader, while another rants, "Problem is parents that sit and blog are actually NOT paying attention to their children. You know the old saying 'where are the parents.' Well their right here in front of you honey, but they are zombified in front of a screen."

What bothers me is how they call this exploitative to kids. Allow me to toss out a a question: How is this different than Vh-1's "I Know My Kid's a Star" or Erma Bombeck, Anne Lamott and others writing memoirs about their children?

For a lot of writers who become parents, their child becomes their main inspiration. Writing is about taking your observations and transmitting it to the world. In a brutal way, yes, writing is exploitation about the experiences a writer has. You have to be willing to put everything out there -- the good parts, the bad parts and the ugly parts -- to be a good and honest writer.

That being said, I have to add that as a parent, I'm trying to exercise more editorial control over what I blog about regarding my family life and all my writing. It's not perfect and it will change in the future. But without an editor (even if it's only me) this entire thing would degenerate into a gibbering mess. An entertaining, gibbering mess, sure, but a mess nonetheless.

I think that what bugs me with this article is the current "Look at the Internet! Any retarded monkey can write and publish! OH NOES!" framework that print journalism has about blogging and online publishing. Is the problem with this simply that anyone can put their voice out there, without an editor or gatekeeper deeming that it's fit for public consumption? Do we have to depend on tastemakers to say what's great and what isn't? In which case, my only response to that is that we're talking about tastemakers that deemed EPIC MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS movies that should be released to the general public.

Moments like this I keep reflecting on Anton Ego's line, "Not everyone can be a great artist, but great art can come from anywhere." And really, if something's not your style, why bother reading it and getting an ulcer? There's more productive things to do during the day. Like jacking off.

ETA -- I'm sure there's another post in here about how "mommybloggers" are unfairly ghettoized, but that's for another day. I already sense this bad boy getting a little out of control. Not to mention, my child's attempting to set fire to the carpet, so I should stop her.