Different Strokes

Mrs. Kennedy says:

‘Last year when that reporter called to talk to me about this thing they call “mommy blogging”…he asked me what I hoped to accomplish with this Web site.

I told him that I started blogging partly out of a need to construct a new public identity for my self now that I was a mother. A blog can be like a mirror and I needed to see a reflection of a person I still recognized there after all the changes I’d been through. Because I wasn’t finding myself anywhere else.’

This is a reason for blogging? For me, there is no separation between ‘myself’ and my role as a father. I am a father, and a father is…I. Is this a bad thing?

Of course, there is who I was before Ian, and who I was before Kelly. But those men are not who I am, and certainly aren’t who I want to be. I don’t feel as though I’ve lost myself; rather, I’m finding myself. When I see my wife, when I see my son, I see who I am. And, sometimes, a glimpse of who I’m supposed to be.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the phrase ‘mommy blogging’. If it simply means ‘a mom who blogs’, then I’m probably off base. But why, then, use the term ‘mommy’ if your goal is anything but? Mommies are mommies, daddies are daddies, because they have children. My purpose in ‘daddy blogging’ isn’t to get away from fatherhood, but to celebrate it.

One Response

  1. Fergus
    Fergus at | | Reply

    To misquote Shakespeare, some people are born parents, some achieve parenthood and some have parenthood thrust upon ’em. I can’t imagine not loving being a dad or not natuarally finding it a fascinating, rewarding experience. But I’m sure some people have to work at these things and, as long as they get there i nthe end, I guess it doesn’y matter too much.

    Fergus

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