I also follow a lot of shiny, pretty home blogs for pretty much the same reason.

I saw that piece a few days ago and read it with interest. And while Mormon blogs have no attraction for me, I do have some escapist fiction that I read that is even more embarrassing, so I won't be casting any stones.

And don't even get me started on the Mommy Blogs, which make parenthood seem like a vale of judgment and anxiety, full of words like "guilt" and "chaos" and "BPA-free" and "episiotomy."

Heh. So true.

Oh, but I don't read any Mormon housewife blogs. Recommendations?

I suspect however, that I would just feel crushing guilt at the immense relief I have most Monday mornings when I pack the kid off to daycare.

The only true Mormon housewife blog I read is the NieNie Dialogues (found after the Mefi post abut her surviving that horrible plane crash). I read a handful of other personal blogs of women living different lives than I, but I'm choosy- I need a blogger to be real, I don't want anyone too polished or sponsored or fame-whorey. Even my vicarious living must be down-to-earth!

I read a couple Orthodox-Jewish-returned-to-Israel blogs a while back. That was kind of my equivalent.

My dirty secret is that on the days I get really, really bored, I'm all about the British Royal Family on Wikipedia.

I actually had to stop reading mommyblogs when Older Boy was tiny - reading about everyone else's anxieties just magnified my own PPD. I did stay on some positive parenting lists because they were supportive and focused on doing your best, not being perfect.

I think you could find a lot of the same attitudes in some of the other religious blogs, but I think what sets the Mormons apart is their separateness and their closeness. They're right there next to you, but not in your same world.

Mormonism offers a lot of Answers to questions that people have in their minds about doing right and doing their best. Lots of procedure, ritual, busy things that keep you occupied, body, mind, and soul. And that's on purpose. It's literally written into scripture and doctrine.

I read some of the positive spin that the moms put on things, and I do wonder what really goes on inside their heads - I know I've put good spins on bad days in my mommyblog just so I can remember that there were good times, and I really did want and do love these little brats - a kind of fake it til you make it.

Recommendations?

http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/

"They have lovely homes, picture-perfect kids, loving, super-attentive husbands, and things seem very normal and calm,

OH GOD NO IT'S HORRIBLE

But seriously, very very very very interesting on many levels.

I read that a couple of days ago and I've been turning the idea over in my head... and I realized that I feel exactly the opposite. I browse through lots of home-blogs and mommy-blogs, and when I find a good one I tend to return erratically, but I do get a little uneasy when things seem all happy-shiny.

I'm most comfortable reading these seemingly-intimate glimpses into a stranger's life when the writer seems to have a little rough imperfection: when they go into hilarious detail about the baby vomit, or when they painfully and knowingly over-intellectualize the parenting process, or when they swear copiously. I know I've hit a sympathetic soul when they burst out with "OH SWEET FUCKITY FUCK."

Which is odd, because I rarely swear on my own blog. My best friend's MOTHER reads it, for sweet fuckity fuck's sake.

My dirty secret is that on the days I get really, really bored, I'm all about the British Royal Family on Wikipedia.

For me, it's the Fortean Times forums.

My dirty secret is that on the days I get really, really bored, I'm all about the British Royal Family on Wikipedia.


Yeah, I've read them all the way back to Offa.

Interesting. I have never read any, but I am intrigued. I'm not sure if the lives of mainstream Mormons would hold the same fascination for me that polygamist ones do, though.

I used to read NieNie until bloglines collapsed last month. I haven't set up a new rss reader. yet. Also, the C. Jane linked in that article is NieNie's sister.

I'm most comfortable reading these seemingly-intimate glimpses into a stranger's life when the writer seems to have a little rough imperfection: when they go into hilarious detail about the baby vomit, or when they painfully and knowingly over-intellectualize the parenting process, or when they swear copiously. I know I've hit a sympathetic soul when they burst out with "OH SWEET FUCKITY FUCK."

Have I got a mommy blog for you. I'm not much for mommy blogs or really most lifestyle blogs, but my friend Lisa has been writing one called Beta Mom for several years, and it almost always makes me laugh. Looks like it's dormant now because she's been writing columns on this website, but it's still a good read. She's realistic and has a nice touch. Don't worry, there's plenty of swearing.

Reminded me of this one.

You don't have to be Mormon to blog beautifully about domesticity.

Did anyone read the letters for this article? The Salon letters can be just as good as or better than the article, but man do they do the Salon editors do a lousy job of moderating their letters threads. They need to permaban one spammer who is constantly posting under a new name, but for some reason can't be bothered to do so. Then there are quite a few trolls and blow-hards. There's a certain frequent Salon letter writer whose username I will not mention because I bet she googles herself. The woman constantly posts long letters that are liberally salted with condescension and uppercase words and full of gotcha-style criticisms that are usually wrong. I can usually recognize the tone from the first paragraph, and I just skim the rest. She has favourite lecture topics that she rides to death, such as that no one should have a cellphone unless their employers are paying for it — this lecture gets trotted out for any article writer who talks about having a hard time financially, even if she or he hasn't mentioned having a cell phone. Also she can't understand why Don Draper in Mad Men took another man's identity — she seems to think he did it because he thought "Dick Whitman" was too low-class and ethnic. In this particular thread she informs the author of the article that she (the author) likes these blogs because she really wants children, and lectures her on how she should have gotten married and had children in her twenties. (Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the author is married and that it says so in the article.) This kind of thing is par for the course for this poster. Self-righteous cow.

I need a blogger to be real

Right on. I find these shiny happy self portrayals repulsive, because they make my BS detector start whooping.

Give me the truth, be it ever so sad, ugly, ambivalent, or imperfect.

NieNie's blog is interesting because in addition to her shiny happy home life, she has some pretty serious health problems to deal with. And the issue of living with a very visible injury that can be gross or scary to others- she mentioned once in a blog post that she was at a grocery store and a little girl called her a monster, that probably happens fairly regularly for her, I don't know how I'd deal with it. It's interesting to read about how her life goes with all that stuff in the pot. Plus, I'm fascinated by her obsession with having another baby. She and her husband are both from families of 11/12 kids. Apparently doctors told her she could one day be pregnant again, but I can't see when or how? Were they just being kind? Who knows.

I really start to glaze over reading lifestyle blogs. At some point I start to wonder what this exercise is all about. A recipe? Awesome! A picture to show what it looks like when it's done? Very helpful. A picture or two to help illustrate an unfamiliar technique? Appreciated. But a picture of what a whole apple looks like, followed by the same apple, chopped? Followed by the same chopped apple, now in a bowl, and now in a bowl with walnuts? And now with a dollop of mayo on the walnuts? And now with the mayo mixed in and a sprinkle of raisins? Unnecessary. I have cooked before, and I can picture that in my mind. It starts to seem bizarre. Yes, Ms. Blogger, you have a nice camera and a good eye and yes, the pics are pretty in their own nicely lit and wholesome way, but after the first six or seven they start to lose interest. There's a lot of beautiful production, not a lot of substance. So I guess you have to enjoy the sensory effect created by the pretty production and just stop there. I get frustrated with the meandering very quickly.

While I haven't looked in a while, my favorite "Mom blog" is written by someone I met through comics: Milkbreath and Me, about an American family who moves to Canada after the husband gets a job at the university there.

(And I have to admit the reason why I haven't read in a while is that when she changed her theme, it made it hard to pick a date and read forwards, so I can't catch up as well as I used to be able to do.)

Also, I just used four additional words, just so I wouldn't end that sentence with a split infinitive.