{Essay} This is Not a Mommy Blog

My office assistant (and best source of material)

When asked what kind of blog I write, I often have difficulty answering. Family humor? A 21st-century Erma Bombeck column? A lazy, foul-mouthed Martha Stewart with kids that actually like her?

Priss & Vinegar has always suffered somewhat of an identity crisis. What began as a self-proclaimed snarky lifestyle blog came to include pregnancy, parenting, current events, and pop culture. In part this was because I wrote about whatever I felt like on a given day. But (and I admit this sheepishly) it was also part of a very deliberate effort to diversify my content.

I didn’t want Priss & Vinegar to be a “mommy blog.”

Like “chick lit” and “mena-porn”, the term “mommy blog” seems more derisive than descriptive, an identifier that says this thing is so profoundly silly and low-brow that only women could possibly enjoy it. It evokes images of bored stay-at-home-mothers taking to the internet during naptime to spread hysteria about crib bumpers and crotch danglers; proclaim their love of coffee, couponing and wine; and post cute pictures of their kids.

It would be disingenuous not to acknowledge that these kinds of blogs exist. They do. And whether their content interests you or not, you have to admit what a testament it is to the egalitarian nature of blogging that women (and specifically, mothers) can utilize the internet to voice their opinions from the otherwise cloistered environments of their homes. They can mobilize powerfully on the subjects of vaccinations, circumcision and Giselle Bundchen, their collective fury bearing real impact on companies’ policies (and celebrity apologies).

But as much as the genre of mommy blogging is powerful, it can suffer from a lack of ambition to avoid the very stereotypes used to deride it. And that, I hope, is where Priss & Vinegar strives to improve on the form. Yes, I am a mom, and yes, I blog (often during nap time), and yes, I enjoy writing about my never-ending search for the perfect diaper bag (coming soon!) and posting adorable pictures of my children; but I reject the notion that writing on these subjects necessarily means the work must be all single-minded, judgmental ire or air-headed crap.

So is this a mommy blog? Of course it is, and I regret going all Jonathan Franzen about the term in the first place. Priss & Vinegar aspires to be the very best of the genre, a mom writing about her daily life with humor, intelligence and candor (and maybe a teeny bit of fancy sweatpants style). So go ahead, bookmark me under “Mommy Blogs” without fear of my head exploding. I daresay it might even be a compliment.