The Decline of the Parental Blog

My blog is a touching tribute to parenting through product reviews and MommyMonday Giveaways!

Every time I try to think of a new blog entry concerning being a stay at home dad, I come up empty.  What is so difficult about being at home all day with a two year old? Nothing. It’s pretty easy actually and I’m loathe to really find anything to gripe about or something interesting to say.  So I clean diapers, vacuum, do the dishes and cook.  So what?  People all over the planet have 1/100 of the income, property and opportunity I have and they never complain.  Or worse, they have no voice to be heard in their society.   It’s not tough and not  interesting — even as the stay at home dad craze reaches new and huge heights.   I should be really torching up this blog and jumping on the Stay At Home Dad bandwagon right?  Reader, I must tell you that I just feel like a real misanthrope blogger, a grump and a generally sour blogger.  I go to other blogs for inspiration, but something has changed since I started PunditDad, the gritty blogs seem to have given way to a bunch of Oprah-esque lifestyle/Home Shopping Network shills.   There is no two ways about it, there has been a real decline in the parental blog.
The blogging craze seems to have really settled out but one thing seems clear: blogs concering mommies and daddies have jumped the shark.  They are solely focused on products, product reviews, unique visitors, BlogHer network conventions, online cliques of Mommy’s and Daddy’s who dropped out of the working  “Game” only to find another “game” to play while Junior is napping, or at daycare or with the  nanny.   What happened to the actual PARENTING in the parenting blog?

I think you only need spend a few seconds at http://www.5minutesformom.com/ and you see where I’m going. This cottage industry doesn’t have much to do with finding a preschool, teaching potty training, or the fear a new parent finds deep within themselves.  It’s more about giveaways.  A lot of giveaways.   And book sales through websites. The other thing lacking is the bare honesty that used to be the hallmark of a good parental blog.  I still find some fine blogs, don’t get me wrong, but the move to “commercialize” the parental blog creates and artifice of less quality.

Isn’t there enough about parenting/parenting life to mock, criticize, laugh at, cry about that makes a product review of a Mommy or Daddy massager or office organizer unnecessary?   I’m not saying people aren’t welcome to make a buck or hawk their products, but the insipid artificial networks that have been created so that everyone can get a “piece of the action” rather than learn to speak from the heart is disturbing.   The shock of how children change, their amazing honesty, the huge responsibility of teaching life skills seems like a huge opportunity that is commonly being missed.  All of these things have been ever so slightly pushed to the side.  In the end, is everyone just reading everyone else’s blog to so they themselves can get recognition?

Below is a list of the most common blog topics that I see on parental blogs:

1.  I’m sooooooo BUSY!!! How can I continue being so BUSSSYYY!???

2. Kids say the funniest things.

3.   Enter my Giveaways!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yah, I know. I’m a complainer and I like taking digs at other people’s expense.  But I’m going to make a real attempt to approach some difficult subjects about parenting that I think people should be talking about, maybe things you have thought about or had questions?  There is a lot to choose from and I’m going to make a promise here to not just complain, kvetch and moan but really hit it dead on.  Life is more than just giveaways?  Right?