Kiran Manral started blogging when her son was a tiny tot.
My journey into “Mommy Blogging” began back in 2005 when my son, better known in the blogging world as the brat, was barely a year and a few months old. Blogging came about for me, as an endeavour to put down memories of his childhood, I was sure I would forget, and also, let’s face it, to keep in touch with my writing skills, given I’d given up full-time work when I had my son.
It began as a way to discipline myself into doing some regular writing at least a few times a week, and morphed into a habit, one that I began to look forward to. A quick update of the blog, a mental filing away of an anecdote to be narrated when I got to a computer, and responding to the comments that came in at every post. Blogging, surprised me, it became part of me. Little did I know then, that some years down the line, folks would know me as a mommy blogger.
I’ve come a long way since, and so has the brat. It has been almost a decade now of blogging about my journey as a parent, where I’ve stumbled, fallen down, picked myself up, wondered if I was doing the right thing, questioned myself, asked for answers. On the way, I have become part of a wonderful sisterhood of bloggers, the mommy bloggers.
I blogged about every, the brat’s sleep issues, his development delays, his tantrums, my agonies flying with him alone. I felt cocooned by the warmth of the online support this sisterhood gave me. I’ve seen the brat recognised at malls, in cinema halls, at airports and by extension, I bask off his reflected glory, I am the brat’s mom. I am karmickids. My blog name has now become what blog readers identify me with, they follow the brat’s escapades, they are like old friends, they laugh with me when he does something hilarious, they console me when I’m fretting about PTMs and report cards and such like. Some of them I’ve never met in the real world. Some of them, today, are dear friends in the real world.
Across the world, women (and more recently men as well) have been blogging about their children, about the life lessons they’re learning through this parenting journey. A journey that might seem indulgent to some, but a journey that is questioning, that is a reaching out, a connecting between them and other parents also making the same journey, grappling with the same issues, learning from the other’s experiences and sharing one’s own. This, and more, is what I hope to share at MOMentum 14, where I, along with other wonderful mommy bloggers like Tara Sharma Saluja, Mansi Zaveri, Aloka Mehta, Priya Fonseca and Vinita Bahl will get together to share our journeys in the Mommy blogosphere over the past years, how mommy blogging has changed (or not) and how our individual journeys have impacted our lives. We hope to reach out to other mothers who are already blogging, or who are thinking about beginning to blog, and tell them, hop on, it is a fun ride.
What: MOMentum – a Mom’s Weekend Out is a 2-day fun activity for mommies and kids. Look forward to exciting workshops, shopping and spa to rejuvenate your mind, body, soul and aspirations!
When: March 8, Sat (2 PM – 8 PM), March 9, Sun (11 AM to 5 PM)
Where: Kids Club, Kamla Global Academies, 11 Road, Near Madhu Park, Khar (W), Mumbai-400052.
To register, log on to Momentum 2014
