Reading Time: 3 minutes
A long time ago in a universe far far away called 2009 I started this blog. I was a frazzled mum of three little preschool girls who was desperately trying to navigate life as a stay-at-home mum. I needed somewhere to share my struggles. I needed validation. I needed to write to keep sane. I needed The Truth About Mummy.
Back then the landscape of Australian blogs (the Blogosphere) was very different. We’re talking maybe 200 personal bloggers who wrote stories about their life and commented on the stories from the other 199 bloggers. There was no interplay between social media and blogging. (Hey, most of it didn’t even exist.) There were no concerns about ‘building your brand’ and there were no approaches from PR companies. It was pretty much just people who love to write telling their stories and connecting with other people who love to write and tell stories. We got to know each other in our little online world. We built online friendships and supported each other through the emotional ‘rough and tumble’ of life ~ especially in the mummyhood.
But as life goes things changed. PR companies learned the potential of ‘synergy’ and brands working with blogs. Suddenly companies were sending bloggers free stuff to review. I can remember being wide-eyed with shock when the Rubbermaid Micro-fibre Mop arrived at my door by courier (my first review and giveaway). I couldn’t get it through my head that a company would give me a free mop in exchange for my opinion in a blog post. PR took the blogosphere by storm. We were shmoosed by PR people. They sent us stuff, took us places, created opportunities for us to meet up and they entertained us. It was validating, as a part-time writer, to feel like companies recognised our blogs as a pathway to promote their brands and frankly being involved in the early PR scene was bucket loads of fun.
The razzle-dazzle and attention of the early PR scene soon started to attract a new generation of bloggers keen to capitalise on what they saw happening. Social media was growing along with the expectation that bloggers would become ‘influencers’. The newer generation, with their stylised blogs, perfectly poised Instagram accounts and impressive Facebook reach were ready and willing for the challenge. The storyteller’s generation slowly started to take a step back. (Not all – but many.) Our lives got busy. Our little people grew up and we (read me) needed to head back to work where we could make a consistent income to pay for the lives of growing children. Others rebelled against the pressure to promote themselves as a brand and chase followers. For whatever reason, we storytellers stopped writing stories. We stopped reading other peoples stories and we stopped commenting on stories. And then, for me at least, the love of blogging was all but gone.
I really miss the ‘golden olden days’ of the blogosphere. The community. The writing. The whole ‘kit and caboodle’. Feeling all nostalgic a few days back I visited some of the blogs I used to love. TumbleWeeds were rolling across most of them. Others had completely disappeared. I tracked down a few of their owners to check in and see how they were doing. We talked about how much we missed ‘the way things were’ and I remembered just how important this space and its stories are to me. One thing led to another and we tracked down even more of our old community via a Facebook group. There was reminiscing and discussion about why we stopped doing what we love. And for a few of us, there was a commitment start blogging – blogging as a community.
You can’t step back in time. It’s no longer 2009. We are all in new spaces and most of us balancing work with family and other aspects of life. Busy lives don’t leave much time to devote to blogging, so things are going to be different. But once a storyteller always a storyteller. And this blog is going back to sharing stories. If you’re a storyteller too, old or new, and you want to join me as I write stories, read stories and comment on stories, then welcome (or welcome back) to the community. I am very much looking forward to being connected again. 
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