How is it that SxSW is wicked serious business when Mom 2.0 is a girlfriend getaway?
It’s because SHE (Ms. Rosman, who works outside the home and has two small children of her own) has no respect for what mom bloggers do. What I took away from her article is that she does not consider blogging as an entrepreneurial endeavor nor does she view it as nobly as her own profession though it can at times be very similar (and IS very similar). She views these mom bloggers as no more than a joke that companies are throwing their money at because they think they’ll get them to buy more stuff.
I love helping people. As an IT professional turned full time mom who turned to blogging as a way to practice my skills online I became a Mommy Blogger. I found a whole new virtual world of people who either needed my help or would willingly offer me help. Honestly, there was no direction to my writing at first and lots of trial and error and beating myself over the head. Since then I’ve finally found some focus to my efforts and endeavor to use what influence I have in the bloggosphere to entertain, inform and teach people. My goal is to make this endeavor a true money making business that will supplement our household income and allow us ALL as a family to have more freedom to travel, pay off debt, purchase much needed replacements for furniture past it’s prime, keep up more easily with the cost of replacing our kids clothes every few months or even go to the movies a few more times a year than usual.
Still I have not attended one of these conferences, but I would one day love to. The thought of going to party was never even a thought. I had in mind I would meet the women with whom I share ideas on a daily basis, who’ve helped me and some I’ve helped, that I’d get connected with brands who would value my efforts online in their behalf because I’ve proven reliable and always around. When the opportunity to go to BlogHer and Bloggy Conference landed on my table earlier this year I decided not to request sponsorship yet because I was truly unsure of how my value would be perceived by companies viewing my request. My plan was, and still is, to continue to build my audience, improve the quality of my content and communications with readers and THEN request sponsorship to a conference or two next year. It’s rather a bummer because Chicago and Sandusky, OH are so close for me to drive and they would have been good mini vacations for the fam because it would be my full intention to take them with me so they could enjoy the attractions nearby while I was in sessions taking notes on how to move my blogs to the next level. Then again by going to these conferences I’d learn THIS year how to do the very things I have in my plans so a decision not to go now really is a double edged sword.
Wow, sounds like a real frat party doesn’t it? Sounds like I really want to go rogue, too. Whatever, Katherine Rosman – get off your high horse and get that condescending smirk off your face. When I was in the corporate world I traveled all around the world. BTW, I don’t like staying in hotels. I’d rather cook my own food. I really enjoy being with my family because I LOVE them. They aren’t just a job to me from which I need a vacation.
Let’s start with the title. “The Mommy Business Trip” is the headline on Katherine Rosman’s piece in the Wall Street Journal and its tagline is the equally icky “Conferences Appeal to Women With A Guilt-Free, Child-Free Reason to Leave Home.” It gets worse from there. In 1,228 words, Rosman takes a real trend — the explosion of conferences for women with online businesses and a parallel surge in the numbers of advertisers who are courting those entrepreneurs — and turns it into a tale of desperate housewives who use the pretext of work as an excuse to escape from home and act like ninnies. ……Haven’t men been going to sales meetings and conferences for generations? Staying at lovely hotels and dining in fine restaurants — and sometimes acting really silly? Do you think there is a single article about men and work travel that oozes the same patronizing tone as this one? Find me one. I challenge you. Isn’t there a big ‘ol conference in Austin every spring , where the crowd is mostly male and the schmoozing and partying is considered far more of the draw than the actual sessions? Didn’t Rosman write about that conference two years back, calling South By Southwest a place where “Internet entrepreneurs, engineers, journalists, promoters, moneymen and web-savvy Hollywood types meet to discuss technology, brand and buzz”? […]
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Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
