I am who I am

I’m a freelance writer..
People hear this and look interested.
“Oh! Do you write books?”, they ask.
“No, I write press releases,do translations,produce web copy, ghost blogs, articles and 101 other bits and pieces”
And the shutter comes down.
“Oh, so you don’t writer proper stuff?”
Ermmm.

I’m a blogger.
In fairness the shutter barely wobbles in the wind with this one.
The common response goes along the lines of…
“Oh, really?”, without looking up.

I’m a Mummy Blogger.
I have to say as labels go this isn’t one of my favourites. I find it slightly disconcerting to receive emails addressed to “Mummy” that haven’t been sent by my kids. “Mummy blogger” is a title loved by some and hated by others. As there is with all labels, the Mummy Blogger label has a stereotype attached to it. Mummy bloggers are those who make stuff up all day to get freebies right? Wrong. As a Mum (or a Mummy) who blogs (so you can see where Mummy Blogger comes from) I enjoy writing about my family, our home, our lives and our opinions. It is unfortunate that this is a label that can be used negatively as I know many people who fall under the Mummy, or Daddy or my preferred name parent blogger tab who are simply bloody wonderful people and talented writers.

I’m a WAHM (or work at home mum).
“So you work from home and look after kids at the same time?” *Insert raised eyebrow here*
Good Lord, is it possible that I may be able to work from home full-time and not damage my children? Clearly I neglect them terribly. As a WAHM I am bound to be letting something important fall by the wayside, (I agree with this actually, in my case it is usually sleep and dusting behind things).
Believe it or not thousands of men and women work from home very successfully, with children in school, nursery or at home. The joys of organisation i.e. working like a ferret on speed during nap times, and after bedtime as well as at a ridiculously early time of the day can all be part of the parent who works from home.

Some might say I am a mumpreneur.
“Oh God, not another one!”.
Calm down folks, it’s just a title. I am a Mum who runs a business. You have to admit that mumpreneur sounds infinitely better than Mumisiness-woman? It isn’t a term that I use myself but hey-ho.
Personally I couldn’t give two hoots what people call me (to my face or otherwise), a label is just a label. People are often grouped together by common interests, goals and other life choices. Ok, there is the potential for stereotyping and abuse with this but from a personal standpoint I don’t care if I am a blogger, a WAHM, or a Mumisiness-woman.

If you really want to know who I am, my name is Nicki.

"Nicki" (prounounced Nick-ee). Mother, wife, daughter, sister, writer, blogger, cheese eater, social media addict, flower lover, interior design show fanatic, Slimming World member, user of sarcasm.

Blogging – What makes you tingle?

During the Blogger-Fail, all over Twitter have been cries of outrage, irritation, dismay at the thought of losing content. I can’t say I blame them, I’d be horrified if I thought some or all of C&C could disappear (and be somewhat pissed off I imagine too!).

No-one’s cries hit my ears harder though than J’s. J is a friend of mine who set up a blog on Thursday night. She’s never had a blog before but long since wanted a way to record and share the trial and tribulations that go with being a single mum AND being a Corporal in the British Army! Life smacked her around the back of the head a few years ago and life went from a joyride, to the most terrifying rollercoaster imaginable, but all is calm again and she is enjoying life with her gorgeous daughter, whilst building a future for them both. Her excitement at seeing the blog live and her first post up there was so touching, more so when she had that eyelash in her eye that made her look like she’d welled up. This was what she had needed, an outlet. A way to put everything together, for herself and her daughter and, being the person she is, to share with others who might find themselves in similar situations.

THIS is what blogging is. I am firmly in the “blog for the reasons you want to, blog how you want to” camp, but this was a shining example of someone really getting a kick out of just seeing what they’d written “published”.

I could tell she’s caught the bug when I received these amongst numerous other texts today.

“Urm, I can’t log in to Blogger. It say the blog isn’t there anymore!!!!”

“How long will it be down for?”

“It’s a good job I’m new else there would be a lot of disappointed followers lol”

“Urm, It’s still saying blog not found?”

“I can wait I suppose, I have had so many ideas for what I want to post about. You’ve created a monster”.

These were a select few. For J, the love is seeing it all in black and write, the achievement almost of getting it out there. I love that. She isn’t ready to share with everyone the blog, wanting to go get a few more bits and pieces on first, but when she does, it’ll be well worth the wait!

What makes you tingle about blogging, do you still tingle? Is it that someone has taken the time to comment, is it seeing your blog move up the rankings? Is it seeing how many people visited last week?

For me, I still get that buzz when I know I’ve written something good and I see the words “Post Published”, it’s out there, it’s live, and where it will go, who it will touch, I have no idea. I love that feeling! So come on then, tell me about YOUR tingle!