My husband Matt is very supportive of this whole blogging thing. He loves that blogging encourages me to think more deeply about certain topics, allows me to garner the opinions of others and gives me a bit of a mental outlet. He receives my new blog posts in his email every morning, and enjoys reading most of them.
In some ways though, Matt is baffled by blogging, and in particular, by "mummy" blogging. Although Matt receives the blog emails each day, I'm sure he skips over anything about cooking and housework. (He hasn't told me this, but I'm right aren't I?). Matt always laughs about the fact that one of my most popular posts ever (in terms of the number of comments received), was one on my old blog about whether you leave your clothes-pegs on the clothesline, or keep them in a peg basket. Then a post about the famine in Africa, or the impact of large families, or the Bible is somewhat overlooked.
It does make me wonder if I have become more superficial as a mum? I sometimes almost always find it easier to read and comment on blog posts about housework than about poverty. I find myself attracted to posts on making homemade ice cream more than those on living a godly life. I read a short post (or a post with beautiful pictures) over a long post. I prefer to read Alexander McCall Smith over Charles Dickens. I would rather read "How to really love your child" by Ross Campbell than "The Cross of Christ" by John Stott (although even in my deep-thinking uni days, I never made it through "The Cross of Christ"!)
In our family, my husband worries about the "big" stuff (work, where we live, where we go to church, schools and the education system, Australia's political system, theology) and I worry about the "small" stuff (our home routine, housework, kids' activities, returning library books...). Though we both help each other out (I have a strong opinion on some of the big stuff, and he gives me ideas and assistance with the small stuff), my natural inclination is towards the "at home", and his is towards the "out of home". Occasionally something like the famine in Africa, or a part of the Bible will jolt me out of my home-based focus. But more often than not, I am too busy contemplating what we will have for dinner to contemplate the world economy.
I don't think this is all bad. I also don't think "narrow-focus" is always the same as "superficial". There is still huge intensity of relationships, emotions, ideas... even in a single home environment.
What do you think? Are you a "superficial" mummy?
