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The similarities are simply too many to be ignored. Okay, so I’m technically not a ‘mommy’. But I am a parent, and I do write a blog. It seemed like a novel idea at the time. What better way to promote my recently penned memoir They Call Me Wheels, (available in paperback spring 2010 from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and of course, right here on TheyCallMeWheels.com. Ahem…) I figured my offbeat, true-life story of a bachelor suddenly thrust into the foreign, terrifying world of step-parenting while permanently confined to a wheelchair would resonate with people of all stripes: parents, the disabled, maybe both, maybe neither—it would be unique, to say the least; a mix of excerpts from the book, peppered with new posts covering the continuing saga of my mixed-up, mashed-up, special blend of a family.

But recently the blogosphere (or should I say, the ‘mommysphere’) has virtually erupted over a snarky piece in the Style section of the New York Times entitled Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy, I’m Too Busy Building My Brand. The veritable online backlash has introduced me to a burgeoning cultural phenomenon unfolding right under my nose. And apparently I’m all a part of it. It seems everybody’s blogging about their kids.

To be fair, TheyCallMeWheels.com is not your typical parenting blog. I don’t evaluate pull-up diapers or sippy cups. I don’t post any photos of my family online; in fact I don’t even use their real names. (Seriously, why do you think God invented Facebook, anyway?) I try to make my bi-monthly posts reminiscent of the writing style of my book —spacious, humorous, visceral, and hopefully literary at times—rather than prolific, twitter-esque, one-dimensional pratter (“I just put my new brownie recipe in the oven 5 minutes ago. Hope my family doesn’t disown me! LOL”) or dry, straight-up parenting advice you can get from any number of truly professional sources online.

Furthermore, I have never attended a conference on how to ‘build my brand’ or drive up my page views like the attendees of “Bloggy Boot Camp”, the subjects of the aforementioned Times article. But by the same turn, would I be overjoyed if the home-made, Rube Goldberg contraption I call my website wound up on top of “The Google” at some point? Damn right I would. Let’s face it—I’m trying to sell a few books here, and I’d like to put all three kids through college if I can.

So, with that said:

hipasiwannabe.com
dialmforminky.com
mayhemandmoxie.com
momfluential.net
ScaryMommy .com

(No, these aren’t typos. But I just read somewhere that if you include links to other sites that are similar to yours it will drive up your page views. Now, back to the blog…)

Though I blog relentlessly about my kids and my wonderful wife (or really, their aliases), I have never thought of this as exploitative; it’s more therapeutic than anything else, for I’m not only neck-deep in the parenting trenches but I’m also deflecting the stigma associated with being the parent of a blended family, as well as the perceptions of the general population towards the disabled. Where these two worlds intersect in my life and the unusual, sometimes humorous results that ensue is the true crux of what They Call Me Wheels is about. It’s more of a ride than an evolving dialog (maybe it would be, but I haven’t had time to add a place for comments to the web site yet).

But what caused me to stop and take an honest, in-depth evaluation of my true mission after reading Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy was author Jennifer Mendelsohn’s observation that the most successful of the mommy blogs are now being courted by huge corporations offering all kinds of goods and services, even paid-in-full jaunts to events where their interests lie—all in exchange for favorable mentions online. Of course some mommies have even attained the Holy Grail: that lucrative book deal, or the coveted columnist job for a major glossy—bravo! Although Mendelsohn is quick to point out that many of us blog for non-monetary reasons, (camaraderie, sense of community, preservation of one’s sanity, or to simply while away the time between the morning bus pickup and the afternoon drop-off) it does steer a large and uncomfortable moral dilemma in our general direction. Do we truly aspire to get rich off the backs of our little ones, and if so, is this okay?

In my defense, I can say my conscience is bare in this arena; I have never accepted any form of swag in exchange for an endorsement of any kind. I swear.

Okay, so they haven’t exactly asked me yet. As of this writing I’ve only been up in cyperspace for about six months. Honestly, there’s no telling what I might do in that situation, if it ever arises, but seeing as I’m a male, not a female blogger, I’d probably try to figure out how to work in material on my blog that would somehow lead to getting comped for a professional sporting event. Or a really big T.V.

I can’t say that I’ve solved the dilemma in my own ‘bloggy’ world, other than to acknowledge the somewhat anti-climactic truth: most of us write because we simply have no choice (editors and publishers fear not – I would never write anything that trite). Suffice to say that the internet has provided a very easy and, for the time being, a trendy solution for us to put our thoughts out there; whether our ultimate goal is basic stress relief or the Pulitzer, or just some free baby wipes—my guess is that most of us would have no qualms about getting rich in the process. Personally, I’ll have to wait until I’m actually faced with that dilemma to really know for sure.