Like it or not, your blog is a brand. Slummy, Crunchy, Idealistic or Crafty, those boxes define you….From the design- to the voice, you’re kinds stuck in a niche…. None more so than myself, who feels compelled to add a humorous anecdote to everything…. Thank God for pant escapades…. Anything to propel content and reinforce my chosen slant.

But I can’t help but wonder sometimes, mainly when I should be doing something more productive… Just how much of a caricaturehave I made myself into? There are times when I want to blog about important shit…..like Mental health, world policies…. The art of doily making etc….but I can’t… I mean I could…. But then I’d look a bit flaky, confused and slightly like I was trying too hard to reach every possible angle. Appeal to all!…. Viral goals!!!

Being ‘Slummy’ affords me a bit of leeway, I can, for example, mix up my non existent schedule, have a few days off here and there… Leave posts unfinished…. That’s my box right? It does make things easier. I don’t always have to look for beauty in a basic ham sandwich….or craft up amazing dinners every night….. I mean, I can pretty much photograph a plate of fish fingers and it would all been cool and on point…… Providing I used macro settings and didn’t have too much crap in the background.

I missed out on rapeseed images this month…. I drove past a chosen field this morning and the once bright flowers we dying down, more green than yellow…. Dam it. But I think it’s easy to forget the amount of work that goes into blogging.

Apparently….. You only need to stand in the playground to see the ‘mummy stereotypes’ the yummy mummies chatting in their gym wear with full makeup…. The earth mothers with their monkey like offspring wrapped on their shoulders, the PTAs with their raffle tickets and sensible shoes… But does this really happen??? Is this what we really see? …Bare in mind I’m normally a bit late and rushing into the building…. But I’m not always…. My branded character is, sometimes I’m actually on time, and sometimes my house isn’t a mess…..

I know I live in the middle of nowhere, the schools here have much smaller numbers… Sure there’s a few odd school gaters who never offer me a smile…. And I wonder if my acne or stained cardigan contributes to this…. But there are also plenty of what I would call ‘normal mum types’ just that…. Unbranded… Real…. Perhaps it’s the pace of life too, we are all a bit slower in Devon… Even our phone numbers are missing a digit…. Family sizes here seem to be double the national average…. But I’ve never felt competitive or concerned about parenting trends before. Not until I started linking in with the parent blogging community…..

I don’t for example, covert my mummy friends lives….. I don’t see them in a rapeseed field and feel the need to frolic myself. I don’t see the light box in the their child’s nursery and ask where it was from. Or consider taking a peek to see what they’re cooking for dinner…. I don’t notice if they have Tulips (these seem to be the in flower) in a vase.

I also don’t really care!

I have some wonderful mum friends who I admire for just being them, those who have overcome difficulties, those who make me laugh, those who’s children are kind to mine, those who laugh it off when our children fall out rather than apportion blame.

I suppose my point is, that in the blogging world (now there are a few exceptions) it’s seems success is directly linked to brand, to style and to making life two dimensional. By definition aspiration needs to have an element of simplicity, it needs to seem achievable …But people are beautiful and inspiring for all their complexities…. It’s ok not to share your mental health issues or your doily making….. You’re not public property and wanting to display the positives or the funny aspects in life is 100% OK… but I think, when we read blogs we should also remember, the people behind them are real mums, happy mums, grumpy mums.. dad mums and everything else in between, because a blog is a brand….. But a person is not!!