I personally feel that if you put it out there, and are OK with everyone reading it, then you really have to imagine that EVERYONE may be reading it. Whether you feel as though what you say has a deep meaning or not is irrelevant – everything has value, whether a ridiculous poop story or a “why are we here?” diatribe.

I keep writing, fully knowing that my days of baby woes *may* be over. (Please, Lord, NO!!!) I fully expect that what I write about will evolve, or at the very least change. But no matter what I “say” on my blog my writing has improved. I’ve honed skills valuable to me and become a real writer. Writing online isn’t exactly the medium I ever thought I’d use but its real none-the-less.

I suspect you’ll find the same. And as far as those “just a bit too personal” things like gripes about work? Well, those are the posts I write at great length and then never publish. Its therapeutic just to get it all out. Just make sure you delete them after awhile – it’d be awful to accidentally publish the wrong post later on!

I say stick with it — I think blogging is a good medium that’s just now evolving into something more mainstream.

I’ve also thought about starting an anonymous blog where I could just vent about work. There’s so much material there I should probably re-visit that idea.

My uncle once wrote unkind things about me and my family on his blog and it was upsetting, so my approach here is to try not to do the same. Sometimes I hammer out a post in the heat of the moment when I really feel the need to get something off my chest or I paint an unflattering picture of a family member under the guise of humor. It’s hard to know where to draw the line sometimes.

As for the very personal stuff I can’t share with anyone, I save it for my offline private journals.

As for my daughter, I know at some point her stories will not be mine to tell. I don’t write about her nearly as much as I did in the beginning, but yeah, this blog might be out here for who knows how long and will she want her prom date reading about how she peed all over her daddy at Payless? My guess is no. I don’t look at my three year-old and see the young lady she will be some day. Maybe I should.

My blog as become the friend in which I share my inner most thoughts and feelings to. Some things I cannot bear to part regardless of what people think and say. While there are responsibilities that come with it, such as future employment prospects as well as other more private family matters, that relies on common sense to guide what should be written. The rest is a matter of perspective, both by how feel towards what people think about you and what people actually think about as they read what you write.

So at the end of the day, with regards to the consequences in mind, I write what I cannot say in front of family or friends, because there is no one in the world I can share it with. I share it with the people willing to listen if not, the only medium willing to take it in, my blog.