Blogs and the MSM
I’ve been getting a bunch of hits today from people searching for "Annette Lareau" or "Unequal Childhoods" because David Brooks wrote about the book today in his NYTimes column. Time to break out the "I blogged about that last year" bumper stickers.
The Washington Post has a new work-and-family blog, by Leslie Morgan Steiner, of course It’s frustrating that they’ve got this huge built-in audience and are covering so much of the tired old mommy wars ground. (On a technical note, like the NYTimes, the Post blogs allow comments, but don’t let you link to your own blog. Kudos to the Business Week bloggers for acting like a real part of the blog community.)
The April Working Mother magazine has an article by Arianna Huffington that lauds the advantages of blogging as a career that lets you work from home. Yeah right, if you’re already a celebrity, or started blogging before 2003 (cf. Dooce). I emailed off a letter to the editor, telling them that they missed the point. If you’re looking for a way to quit your day job, blogging probably offers only slightly better odds than a lottery ticket. But if you’re looking for ideas, laughter, and comraderie, and you can only do it when the kids have gone to bed, I don’t think there’s a better place to look.
March 9th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
I already don’t like Steiner’s blog. First, she gets to leave work at 2:30. Um, most of us don’t get to do that. That’s the whole problem with work-family balance. Second, it’s too focused on the moms. In order for this work-family balance thing to work, there need to be some dads and some support from work, so bleh.
I like the Business Week blogs. I don’t know who pointed me to them–probably you. 🙂
BTW, I’ve made 10 bucks off the blog. 🙂
March 9th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
P.S. I glanced at the comments on the WaPo blog and think it’s funny how they’re letting her have it. 🙂
March 9th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Yeah, way too much focus on the moms. Unless we’re exclusively talking about lesbian couples…
March 10th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Hmmm, not finding myself too thrilled with the WaPo working parents blog. Were you the Elizabeth who asked “What do you think we can do to improve things for all moms, rather than throwing gas on the fire?” Whether it was you or not, that was a good comment to her.
I do like the BW blog. When I left a comment, the article author emailed me in response–very bloggy. Of course, they’re not getting 89 comments per article.
What I did note in the comments was there was a lot of judgment and defensiveness going on from working and stay-at-home moms… how tiresome.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:37 am
I just bought Steiner’s book. I’m only as far as her introduction and I’m already annoyed. But I’m hoping the essays themselves stand out as good writing. I’m trying to ignore the title and the incitive nature of it.
I’ll be meeting Steiner Monday night at a local (Berkeley, CA) MotherTalk event. Should be an interesting discussion.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:42 am
P.S. Scrolling through the comments on Steiner’s blog, I think I found yours. Are you the poster who asks her, “What do you think we can do to improve things for all moms, rather than throwing gas on the fire?”
Good question.
March 10th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Can’t you just imagine every working mom quitting to go home and blog?
March 10th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Yeah, that was my comment about making things better. I actually think Steiner gets it that the division between working and at-home moms is artificial, but she thinks she can use the “mommy wars” label as a marketing gimmick without getting caught in the crossfire.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Ugh. steiner’s blog is just downright bad. I guess it’s written for the novice work/family reader :-).
I felt the same way about Belkin’s book (which I believe was a collection of columns). Two entries, and the blog is shallow, in an upbeat way that suggests it’s never going to actually reveal anything significant or difficult.
Now, I’ve never understood why people didn’t like Judith Warner, and enjoyed her column in NYTimes quite a bit; it felt like the kind of stuff I read in the blogs, honest not marketed.
bj
PS: Aren’t y’all getting e-mails suggesting that there are $$$ to be earned at home blogging?
March 10th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Who even reads Dooce any more?