No photo today. WHAT?! I think you failed today’s challenge.
It is a protest.
It is true that a photo challenge should include a photo, but I don’t have one of what I am about to mention and although I don’t usually post things like this, several days later it is still irritating me so instead of a photo you get an argument.
For anyone who is left reading after that last statement, I was watching a program called Media Watch the other night in Australia. The main purpose of the program is to find mistakes or poor journalistic morals in the current news items running on Australian media to highlight the problems with them and keep them honest.
I have no problem with the show normally. I enjoy watching it enough that it is something I watch most weeks, BUT the presenter last week flippantly threw out a phrase that irks me.
‘So we are subjected to another Mum blogger.’
Here is WHY it bothers me.
The word ‘subjected’ is obviously my main issue. It is insulting to me that somehow Mums blogging are offensive.
I happen to be a mum who blogs.
Shouldn’t mothers who manage to find the time to research and write about things that matter to them be applauded not only for excellent time management skills, but also undertaking what amounts to voluntary study and education with out any expectation of a payoff in the end? I suppose I am thinking of myself when I write that, but I am trying to educate myself in the area of photography and practising my developing skills and I use my blog to journal my efforts. Being a mother can be isolating so I get great feedback from other people with more knowledge than I have in this area. My blog entries are my equivalent of handing up an assignment.
I think it equates to other areas too. It might be a subject blog or a blog that focuses on one or more of the many aspects of mothering and educating children. I still think that the content is as interesting to one person as another subject is interesting to another person. Why then are Mum bloggers singled out as flippantly wasting valuable space in the bloggosphere. The statement assumes Mums who dare to blog are forcing unwitting people to be subjected to the pressumed always tedious and mundane experience that staying at home provides.
Sure the pay for the hours worked is SH@#!, but how many other careers offer the flexibility of choosing your location daily based on the weather and your mood. Or offer the opportunity to undertake a (very) longterm project with sole (nearly) responsibility for the outcome and the impact of the result can mean the world to someone.
In the end no one is subjected to anything in the bloggosphere. You can always choose not to read or look. But it isn’t OK to trivialise the existence of a mother or to tell her its not OK share her experience. And it is worth listening, you might learn something.
That is what I listened to.
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