My friend Beth made and interesting observation on her blog yesterday. When she worked at a scrapbooking company, she noticed that many visitors to their online forum chose family-related usernames like "billysmommy" and "lovemyhubby." I notice people define themselves the same way on a baby website I frequent (e.g. momoftwo, billysmom, etc.). Maybe it's because baby sites (like scrapbook sites) get us thinking about family. In the case of mothers, though, I think the biggest reason they choose parenting-related names is that we tend to define who we are by what we do.
Before I became a mom, I might have defined myself by a job or hobby, but now that I'm home with Baby the majority of my time, energy, and thought are devoted to her. I don't go to work, I rarely have time to read, and the only hobby I still find time for is cooking (gotta do it anyway, so might as well do it well). So, in keeping with the "I am what I do" mentality, when Beth asked what her readers would choose for a non-name username, the first things I thought of were mother-related. "Joysmama," or perhaps "ldsmama".
Ironically (for the sake of this discussion, anyway), when I created my blog I chose a name totally unrelated to motherhood. I suppose that was because we already had a family (translation: "baby") blog, and I wanted mine to be just for my random musings and things that sparked my interest. Consequently, I chose a name that encapsulated that aspect of me. If I had to pick a name for my whole package, though, it might have been something different.
What would you choose?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This is actually kind of interesting. I've noticed the same thing too and as I was reading, I began to wonder whether people choose different screen names for different sites. In other words, family-related screen names for family-related sites and hobby-related screen names for hobby-related sites.
I do agree that we tend to identify ourselves with what we do the most...Louis is "socphilos" and was previously "masterpo." I seem to choose screen names based on characteristics though. My livejournal name is "snowdragonne" and my Myspace page is "icedragonne." I also have an email address with "littledisi," in honor of Robin McKinley's two Damar books, "disi" meaning "silly child." Other than that, I just use my name.
I'm curious though. You said that if you were to choose something for your whole package, it would be different from your blog name. What would it be, do you think?
I think it's good that you have your own website that individualizes you. After going through a divorce, I realized once I was by myself I really didn't know who I was anymore. I had blended into a relationship that was really more one sided, but I think so many mom's do this.
My mother for example has no other purpose then to serve her children. I say this because she never thinks of herself. I have to make her go to the doctor or scare her a bit before she will do anything for herself. She doesn't have any hobbies of any sort unless you count religion.
All I'm saying is that it is good not to totally lose yourself and to keep your interests/hobbies active so that you don't find that you've lost who you are in a big family blob.
Post a Comment