It’s a funny world this “mummy blogger” business. We can put hours into writing a blog piece for our website, editing, photographing, bribing the kids with a lollipop to stand still so we can capture that perfect moment… and then we post and we wait. We wait for reactions, for likes, for comments, for shares and sometimes, none of that comes! Well, unless you’re wearing a pair of bathers and stacking a dishwasher as we recently found out!
Blogging from an outsiders perspective looks easy. We get it, we were the outsiders once too. You sit on your phone, you snap a pic, you write a caption, you post, you’re done. But we can tell you from experience, although it’s mostly a whole lot of fun, it’s actually time consuming hard work with little, if any, monetary reward! You see being Mama’s that love to share, it’s hard to ever switch off from this online world! We are constantly planning content, taking photos, writing, researching, commenting back, liking and scrolling through posts… it’s 24/7 work, seven days a week (ok, we do sleep!) but it does consume your life! Lucky for us though, we love what we do!
So, just how did Mama loves to share come about 2,098 instagram posts ago? Well, like any idea, it came about after a good chin wag over a strong cup of coffee (and cake, there’s a good chance there was also cake…). Both pregnant with our first babies at the same time (Lenny & Annabelle were born exactly a month apart), we found a great sense of reliance on each other when it came to pregnancy questions, complaints and laughs which soon moved to newborn baby questions, complaints, laughs and tears! But mostly laughs… so one day we figured that if we found ourselves informative and funny then maybe other people would find us informative and funny too?! Hehe! And so just like that Mama loves to share was born (well, in theory… it still took two years from this point to actually eventuate!).
It is an extension of us, sharing the joys and jokes of motherhood. Things to do, places to go, family friendly recipes, events, memoirs, parenting advice (we try!) and everything in between with the promise to always keep it real and authentic, sharing mum life exactly as we live it.
Now nearly six children between us, Helen, mama to three, Lenny (6), Stella (3) and Hazel (8 months) and Lisa, mama to 2.5, Annabelle (6), Penny (3) and bub number three due any week now. Both currently stay at home mums (Helen previously working in event management and Lisa as a journalist) and both trying to give this “blogging business” a red hot go so that eventually we may be lucky enough to call this a “proper job”.
We really have been very lucky so far. We have been able to take our children to some amazing events, visit some really cool attractions (including Boneo Maze pictured!), work with some incredible companies and most importantly help support local small businesses and interview some wonderfully inspiring local mamas.
Some days though we do have to ask ourselves, what is the point of the whole thing? Is there an end date to what we do? Or is this just the beginning for us even though we sit like a small little fish in a huge market that is already flooded with parenting support and mummy bloggers? Some days we put hours into writing a blog piece, uploading photos, editing etc… only for it to get a couple of likes and no comments, which can be really disheartening.
But is that really what it’s all about? A numbers game? We would be lying if we said it’s not but then sometimes, something happens that lifts our spirits despite the lack of likes – a private message from a mum thanking us for advice that has changed her perspective and helped her family, a comment from someone about one of our recipes they made and how much they loved it, a big smiley thank you from a competition winner, a little note from a small business who received lots of new followers and sales after we mentioned them on our instagram page. These are the things that make it all worth it and that is why we love what we do.
We recently read an interview with another mummy blogger (well, epic mummy blogger) Abby Gilmore and we absolutely love what the journalist, Kara, had to say at the end of the article about bloggers/influencers… “They are real people, doing real shit, sharing positivity in a world of hate so they can make a difference to others. They are small businesses as well and have had to work damn hard to build a tribe or following that engages.”
Well, that’s us, just two real mums doing real shit (well, wiping it from tiny human butts anyway) sharing positivity and laughter (in mum bod bikinis stacking dishwashers) all while hopefully making a difference, inspiring and empowering others.
And that’s gotta be worth liking.
Helen and Lisa xo
Photography – The photos in this story were taken by the incredibly talented Michelle Pragt. Michelle is a Mornington Peninsula based photographer with an authentic lifestyle approach to wedding, elopement, anniversary, maternity, baby and family portraits.
For more information visit http://inphotography.com.au/ or follow Michelle on social media – Instagram, @inphotography_by_michellepragt , Facebook, www.facebook.com/InPhotographyByMichellePragt/
Also a big thank you to the following people/companies who contributed to this shoot –
Location – Justine & Tyson, Boneo Maze
www.boneomaze.com.au
Clothing & Styling – Shelley, Preggy Central
www.preggicentral.com
Kids accessories – Fawn & Finch
www.fawnandfinch.com.au