The Blogging.

     National Public Radio ran an interesting piece yesterday about moms, and to a lesser extent dads, who blog. What began as an honest attempt to create community through personal honesty has devolved into a desperate scramble for goodie-bags, free crap, and the Holy Grail: a full time job blogging supported by sponsors with deep pockets.
     I should confess there have been perks from this blog, but they've been pretty shallow. I got a free shirt and a bottle of stretch mark oil. The stretch mark oil came as a thank you for an unsolicited review I did for Earth Momma, Angel Baby. The t-shirt came when someone asked me to review a site. I had no problem with this because it didn't affect the content of my site. I'd be writing the same thing regardless of what I was offered. Yet NPR makes a somewhat convincing case that bloggers may be selling out in order to get free junk.
     This can become a test of integrity, and I hope it's one that I will pass. Ultimately, I hope this blog helps parents and can become a resource for men. Eventually, it will be a full fledged site acting as a gateway for men to get information and help during all phases of parenting. But mostly, right now, and while I'm writing my posts, this blog is about me. I'm new to this, I have no idea what I'm doing, and there are a lot of things I wish someone would have told me. Hopefully, my experience can help someone else. If not, at the very least it has helped me.