pregnancy

"Mummy bloggers have scared me off motherhood."

You would have to have been under a rock have missed the last mummy blogger blow up.

Basically, blogger Notorious M.U.M, also known as Lisa called out Constance Hall. She wrote, “I’m all for cutting corners, but I don’t think it’s enough to simply pop a sprog out and then f*** off to the pub wearing a T-shirt that says ‘Mamma Bear’. You need to make a bit of a f***ing effort. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.”

She also took aim at Constance’s ‘Queen’ movement; “I’m putting my hand up here and saying: I’m not a queen. A queen mother, maybe, but not a queen.”

A photo posted by Lisa Shearon (@thenotoriousmum) on

Blogger, Lisa Shearon is The Notorious Mum.

Soon the media got wind of this and turned it into a battle of epic proportions with both openly addressing the matter publicly.

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Oh, and can I add that in between there was abuse thrown around with lots of keyboard warriors jumping in, messaging Lisa and attacking her.

I know what Constance Hall set out to do was totally pure. She used social media to show the honest side of motherhood and then created an online following and community aka ‘Queens’ as a safe place for women to connect.

I’m not even a mother and I love her posts but after seeing how all this has turned into a mean girls mentality. it doesn’t sit right with me.

When did motherhood become a competition where you have to heckle the other competitors?

Oh that’s right. Always.

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I have seen it first hand I remember when my best friend was judged right after giving birth for being a “young” mum and being scolded by the nurses about the best way to breastfeed until she was in tears.

My friends have also warned me off mothers groups. Don’t do it they said.

I had one friend tell me how she become the talk of the group after she was so run down and tired she accidentally dressed her child in dirty clothes without even noticing and instead of being sympathised with she was left feeling so embarrassed she never went back.

In the last couple of days we have also seen Karl Stefanovic’s ex-wife, Cassandra Thorburn blasted by columnist and fellow mother Angela Mollard for choosing to be a stay at home mum.

It seems when you become a parent your life becomes open slather for judgement.

I think social media has put motherhood under the microscope. You are categorised by what type of mum you are: the one who posts about nearly having a breakdown and your love of wine or the one who thinks two hours of screen time is more than enough for your child per day but will write about this on every social media platform. There are the ‘yummy mummies’ who post about how easy it is to get your body back into shape and there are the mums who hate them.

After reading and following a lot of these blogs it has made me want to hit unsubscribe to it all.

What I want is for mummy bloggers to take a step backwards and think of the kind of picture they are painting of motherhood, because as someone who is yet to join the club I would like to think when or if I do you can figure out a way to be more welcoming.

Carly Portch is a breakfast announcer on Hot FM Central Queensland. For more from Carly, you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.