Work-Life Balance and FIO

It's been a really long time since I've blogged about my favorite topic, FIO. (Not sure what FIO means? Clearly you need to do some homework and familiarize yourself with this blog and the dominant theme in my life.)

I have to tell you: lately my blogging has taken a distinct FIO turn. Life is just too busy--I have a new job, kids, housework, a husband, some attempts at a social life that does not take place exclusively online, some semblance of an exercise regimen that I try to stick to, etc. In short: there are only so many hours in a day--24 to be exact. And when 8 of those hours are taken up at work and 2 commuting, that leaves 14 hours. Subtract 7 from that for sleep, and that leaves 7 hours to do all of those things listed above, plus stuff like grocery shop, recreate in some way or another...oh, and keep up with blogging, twitter, Facebook and all the rest of it.

The bottom line? There are not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done that I want to get done. If I didn't care about blogging I'd just forget about it, but for whatever reason blogging is my main favorite thing to do in life. Well, writing is, and since sadly no book deal has magically materialized, blogging is about the only for-fun writing I get to do. Like anything fun that people get addicted to: scrapbooking, working out, shopping, whatever--I have gotten addicted to writing. If I don't do it I start to go crazy and I'm already crazy enough, so I've learned to just make time for it and blog regularly.

The problem is that when you're on a tight schedule like I am, sometimes your blogging suffers. Like maybe the TV is on and you're sitting on the sofa next to your husband, who's giving you the stink-eye worse and worse with every passing minute and you're rushing to finish your post so you can be done with it and he can stop sighing and making snide comments about the computer. Maybe you get distracted, or cut corners on the thought you're trying to work through via that day's blog post. The result is a half-baked blog post at best; and one that's just flat-out wrong or offensive in a way you didn't mean.

My best example of this was when I wrote a post about Chris Brogan and something he said on Twitter. I was rushing to finish because one of the kids was bugging me to HURRY UP AND GET OFF THE COMPUTER so I cut my post off short (I have no idea what it was I cut but I distinctly remember that I had a larger point but I just stopped where I was because I couldn't take the whining anymore). Next thing I know Chris Brogan is tweeting the link to my post and lambasting me in the comments. In that case it worked out ok for me because that was the most blog traffic I have ever gotten, but still, half-baked is half-baked.

So twice in the past week or so I have FIO'd a blog post on my other blog. Read this post--then read the comments. Whoops. Now same thing with the post I wrote yesterday about Comcast and customer service--I meant the post to be about the larger issue of social media and customer service being kind of at odds with each other, with social media being done by people who are truly passionate about their jobs and their companies and customer service people usually, well, not so much. Then Social Media Today picked it up and suddenly a "meh" post in obscurity was seen by thousands of people.

Now Matthew (my 11 year-old son) has strep, I'm sick with something, the work-week has started, Thanksgiving is coming...and I have comments to respond to and need to email the poor Comcast guy to explain that I really didn't mean to take pot shots at him or Comcast in particular--I meant to talk about customer service in general and include other examples like Sprint, etc...but I was pressed for time and hit "publish post" before I'd finished my thoughts.

Sigh. Welcome to my world.

I Used To Be Way Funnier

I was just searching for an old post on this blog (or is it "in" this blog?) and realized something. I used to be way funnier. Now that people actually read my other blog, Mizz Information, and call asking if they can interview me for an article about associations using social media or if they can quote me in their upcoming article about, what else--social media--I have gotten in the habit of blogging almost exclusively about social media. Not there's anything wrong with that, of course--we all know I'm totally obsessed with social media so it may as well result in some kind of professional success, right?

But is it as fun to write--or read--about as Fourthmeal, yuppie sex or making boobs out of period blood?

What's the WPE Quotient on This One?

Those of you who already read this blog know what WPE means (not by virtue of your own parenting, of course); if you're new, WPE = Worst Parent Ever. As opposed to Best Parent Ever. Naturally I am a BPE. Wink.

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while but working, freelancing, writing my other blog, playing computer games--oh, and of course, parenting--take up a lot of time and sadly, Motherwhatnowredux often doesn't get the attention it deserves. It used to be that nobody read Mizz Information so I didn't pay too much attention to it. Now, though, that I'm an official social media nerd, actual social media people read that blog--and even write about it. Or mention me by name (I'm the Maggie you're supposed to tweet congrats to--even though I did nothing but let viral networking do its thing--I'll take the kudos anyway).

Anyway, though, back to my original point: WPE. You've all probably heard of "safe haven" laws that allow true WPE--the ones that put their newborn babies into dumpsters or try to flush them down the toilet--to do the leave-the-baby-in-a-basket-on-the-hospital-steps-and-run without penalty thing. Safe haven laws allow true WPE to become the ultimate BPE--the kind who put the health and safety of their kids above all else.

At least, that's the case if we're talking about newborns. Nebraska, however, says why limit it to newborns? Raising a kid--and, mind you, in Nebraska "kid" means anyone up to the age of 19--is a hard job and sometimes you have to just throw in the towel. That hormonal 12 year-old girl getting on your nerves? Drive her to Nebraska and drop her off at any hospital--no harm, no foul.

My favorite part of this whole story is this quote, by Nebraska Sen. Arnie Stuthman:

“The main interest I have is that it gives the mother or a parent another option of what to do with a child before they do something drastic.”

Drastic like, say, driving the kid to Nebraska and abandoning them forever?

I'm Hot

Wow--today my blog is in the "What's Hot" section of myragan.com (the "All this twitter is making me crazy!" headline). If you're reading this post on a day other than today, it's probably no longer up there--alas, the fleeting nature of any spotlight.

Oh and, yes, I am that much of a loser that I have 3 blogs. That one on myragan.com was just an experiment to see how many people actually read it vs. how many people read Mizz Information. As of 1 pm today 149 people have read the myragan.com one. Average daily visits to Mizz Information? That would be zero.

Do the math on that.