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Oh listen. That's the sound of me being bowled over.

When I asked for your feedback, I expected a couple dozen responses. I posted this request one evening before I went to (admittedly early) bed and by morning, there were more than 50 comments. They’re still coming. As I post this, we’re up to 72 comments.

If you haven’t left one yet, GO ONNNN, and if you have, feel free to add another one if you’ve thought of something worth adding in a but-wait-there’s-more! kind of way.

It actually makes me wonder why I didn’t ask you sooner [kicks self]. Because here’s something you should know: bloggers judge themselves not
just by the number of hits but also by the number of comments. If I post
something and all I hear are crickets, I figure no-one is much
interested and question the wisdom of posting something similar in the future. But now I better understand that there are a bunch of silent regulars as well as those who like to roll up their sleeves and get involved.
While reading all your comments, I blushed, felt chuffed and took notes. Many of you said lovely things and I wasn’t even fishing for them which makes it even nicer.

 

I also learnt that you like it when I get involved in the comments. That, I never knew. Some of you thought that because I don’t usually comment, it meant I didn’t read your comments. Not true. I read every one. The reason I didn’t comment much was because a big part of what I love about this blog is starting a conversation and then listening to what everyone ELSE has to say on the subject. But I can still do that and comment sometimes so from now on I will.

Also, many of you said you liked my Essential Baby posts about parenthood. It’s a good time to tell you then that I’m not blogging for Essential Baby anymore. It was always a short-term commitment while we saw from both ends how things panned out. They kind of didn’t. I never felt really at home among that community and I do believe they felt the same way about me. I went out with rather a loud bang for my final post when I decided to have a bit of a rant about free-birthing (the practice of giving birth at home, without any medical assistance) and how I was baffled by those who treated doctors and hospitals as if they were the enemy in the birthing process. Didn’t that go down a treat! A complete shit-fight ensued in the EB forums, my favourite part of which was one commenter who called me an ‘asshat’ (that was one of the nicer things I was called). The moderator asked me to respond and I emailed her back this:

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“I’m not really sure of the correct response to being called an ‘asshat’. Is there one?”

Anyway, I wish everyone at Essential Baby all the very best. It’s a great site. But I will now be directing all my blogging energy here. So yes, there will be some more posts about parenthood and more anecdotes mixed in with all the frockwatch, news, gossip and TIna Fey/Brangelina worship.

One more word about comments…..I’ve probably deleted less than 10 comments out of the more than 7000 that have been left since this site started. My only criteria for removing a comment is if it’s libelous or offensive to anyone. Or if I think it breaches my privacy. All other comments are welcome and more appreciated than you can imagine.

Oh wait. I should also state for the record that I am a friend of the apostrophe. I am also a stickler for the correct use of there/their/they’re. And your/you’re. And its/it’s. I could go on but I will not/won’t. What I will try to do from now on is spell check my posts. Well, I’ll try.

Peace out.

M x

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