On Being Hated

You know what [one of] the [numerous] problem[s] with being "famous" is?  It's being HATED.  Even if most people love you, the fact is that once you become a public figure, or even just well-known for something, you're bound to invite controversy.  Celebrities and politicians?  Game over.  But it's not really them that I'm thinking about.  I'm thinking about mommy bloggers. 

I got into mommy blogs several years ago.  I started reading one friend's.  Then another's.  And they would link to blogs they liked.  And I would read those.  And then I actually got snooty about it and would read blog award articles to check out new blogs.  But for the past year or so, I have been a stable follower of six blogs.  Two are commercial bloggers, i.e., they write books, make money from their websites, and have serious media power.  Four are non-commercial, but I think at least one of them has a pretty big readership.  I don't have data to prove this, but based on my general observations, I think that the larger one's audience gets, the more nasty and hateful comments will follow.

In the past couple of months, I added a seventh blog to my life.  And dear God, it's kind like the book from my last post.  I really do think I read it to see how angry it can make me.  I don't know this mommy blogger.  I've never met her.  I [hopefully] never will.  But she represents pretty much everything about lawyering, motherhood, and the intersection of those two life choices that I DESPISE. 

This evening, as I sit here with my skin crawling from reading the latest post, it's just making me think about publicity and the things we decide to put out there about ourselves.  And it makes me vaguely wonder whether it's worth living one's life in the shadows just to stave off hatred.  Is it better to go public with strongly held, but controversial, beliefs?  Or is it better to keep these things private, especially when you know the controversy they would invite?  Food for thought.

Anyhow, I'm fully aware that NONE OF YOU is really coming here to read this sort of nonsense.  You want cute stories about X and baby pictures.  So without further ado, allow me to report the wonderful news that X is officially cured of his fear of the shower head!  Completely ignoring all the textbook advice, I decided that I would cure him of his fear the way that I was cured of my insect phobia.  With very gradual, deliberate desensitization.  So we first played around with the shower head while he was not even in the bath.  He watched me hose down his bath toys.  The next day, I gave him a bath while he sat on one end of the tub, and the shower head spouted water gently at the other end, not even facing him.  The next day, he sat in the tub and I casually sprayed the shower head next to him, but no spray actually hit him.  And then the following day, he was ready to make contact!  Since then, it's been smooth sailing.  I now get to hose him down at the end of each bath, which was always the goal!  Hooray for psychology!

And now the pictures, which are unrelated to the story above.

Tall baby

Sleepy baby