-I did not have a high-risk pregnancy. I had a 'eat chimichangas at 4 o'clock in morning and chew Flintstones vitamins' diet. I had one ultrasound, versus the weekly checks so many get, that my insurance didn't even cover. I was not terribly scrutinized for anything I did, other than drink coffee in my seventh month. It didn't matter that I hadn't touched anything caffeinated during the past six, but that I was marring my fetus by trying to get by on fumes and caffeine at my hideous job.
-I am a horrible human being by a) circumcising my son, b) not immediately vaccinating him, and c) not breastfeeding for two years.
It's not that the entire community is like this, but it is enough of an issue to be off-putting. No one wants to hear about the daily toilings of a young, happily married mother with a healthy son. They want to hear the trials and tribulations of a college graduated mid-thirties couple (well-to-do, I might add) who has been trying for years, or the parent who lost a baby after an agonizing pregnancy. They want the horror, the impatience, the agony. Because that's what sells, that's what brings the readers.
And while mental illness is brought forth in the community on occasion, it is to the chagrin of many. There are two bloggers (Dooce and Dad Gone Mad) I know who have eloquently defined their emotional battles to the expense of thousands of readers shaking their heads and telling them they should have never reproduced. I have yet to find a blog that deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder or self-mutilation. I know one blog where the mother discusses her former alcoholism. At least that's some form of self-destruction.
Being mediocre is obviously the healthy, if not insanely interesting, way to go.
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