About Me

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Stuck

I'm stuck in a muddle with this blog. I want to do more with it but can't find the time or energy. I want to write interesting posts that don't bore me senseless, but find although I have the ideas for them, I don't want to write them until I can do them justice.

So, for example, I've been mulling a post in my head for ages. Title to be something along the lines of 'Aid is a salve for our Western consciences: Discuss'. I really want to write this post. I don't necessarily agree with its sentiments, it's more of a devil's advocate kind of a post but there's some good ideas to be thrown out there for people to chew on. But I can't write this post until I have sat down and marshaled my thoughts, put them together coherently and actually strung together a proper argument. So don't hold your breath.

Or how about something more meaty on being a Stay At Home Mother (SAHM for those in the know) and in particular whether we, the highly educated women who are not out there contributing to the economy, have somehow let down our mothers and grandmothers who did everything they could to ensure that we got the best education we could possibly get so that we could not use it.

 What about something on the enormous great mess going on in Bosnia as one year after the elections there, there still isn't a functioning government and whilst there isn't a functioning government the country is lurching deeper into social and political instability and economic quagmire. There's a lot to be written about how the situation in Bosnia, over 15 years after the end of its war, holds important lessons for the Libyans, Syrians and others trying to build peace.

Or even how the football federation in Bosnia was suspended by FIFA (in a rare fit of morals) until it sorted out the ethnic structure and against all the odds they did sort it out and in 2 months achieved something that the international community has been trying to do with the Bosnian State for years. I mean who'd have thought it. FIFA? Morals? Integrity? Flying pigs? Maybe football is the way forward after all.

Or, as Pants With Names is a parenting blog, something along the lines of how stressful it is when you and your friends have very different parenting styles.

Maybe I could even venture into posting about the blogging community, as I was very struck the other day about the number of long-term bloggers there are who are not usually early tech adopters (myself right there). I wonder what it was that made us all decide to take up blogging in the first place, all those years ago, and how did we get into it when I don't even have a touch screen phone and have never, in my life, downloaded an app.

Ah well. Another time. Anyone got any particular preference for which post to tackle first? It may be a while coming and in the meantime apologies for the frothy old garbage that I've been churning out recently.

18 comments:

  1. I could have written a post like this. Like you I love the idea of tackling a really meaty subject in a blog post but struggle to find the brain power after my energy's been zapped by three children. I like the SAHM one too, I've had a post brewing for a while along the lines of 'why do some women spend 16 years in education and gather a few professional qualifications along the way only to find themselves trying to remove dried Weetabix from a highchair and argue about bathtime with some people every single day of their lives while their other half goes out each day and uses his brain as was intended'. And there are about 300 moaning blog posts I want to write which would just come across as me being grumpy. Feel free to expand on any of your ideas in this post, I'll read!

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  2. That was meant to read 'small people' instead of 'some people'. Energy zapped you see.

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  3. I'd be interested in any of them, I wish my interesting writing was as good as your no-energy posts! I am currently blogging-lite by doing a photography 365 project, I am appreciating the break but will try to write more when it finishes at the end of the year.

    The career/kids thing has been on my mind recently (just got PhD, no kids, getting on a bit ....), but I just wanted to comment on your first devil's advocate suggestion - it was a number of conversations along those lines when I was in Romania in the mid-90s that first got me into nursing, then my masters in development management, and then my PhD.

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  4. I like the sound of all of your potential posts. I need something meaty to read. Hell, I've just written about conkers, it's your duty to balance that one out with something thought-provoking. Please.

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  5. They all sound good. Why don't you tackle them all one by one? I'm intrigued about the one about the blogging community. I think it's more to do with a need to communicate and less about being techie - I still know nothing about web design and can count on one hand the number of apps I've downloaded....

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  6. Same here. I just don't find the time/energy. I actually find that the more I want to do, the less I end up doing in the end. GAH!!
    Please do write something along the lines of emancipation and how we, the generation that has been brought up to be independent, are in the end just very well educated housewives. Hope you are well, Dr SAHM! :)

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  7. Like nappy valley girl said, they sound good, tackle them one by one. And make them shorties, at least first time round. You can come back to them again later and fill them out. The best is the enemy of the good or as a friend used to say, half a loaf better than no bread - neither of them ideal mottos when you'd rather have the excuse of putting things off till tomorrow anyway, but it saves the burden of guilt and aspiration from building up.

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  8. I'm stuck too, so many ideas, but no follow through. I hate it. How about baby steps, a little at a time?

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  9. The SAHM one, please. And the one about long-term low-tech bloggers.

    But a few more pictures of your feet as well, please.

    I think our female forbears struggled to give us choices, and being an SAHM might be the very fulfillment of that. What I see in my own life is that when the children are at school, that's when my mother's generation set about voluntary work, domestic perfection, or whatever it was they found to give purpose to a lot of free hours in the day. But me and my generation are going back to work, going back into education, writing blogs, or whatever it is. I don't think we can have it all, all the time. But maybe we can have all, spread out over our lifetimes.

    And don't denigrate looking after small children. There's so much evidence about how the quality of care given to children before the age of 5 is hugely significant in their future development.

    You really hit a chord with me there, didn't you?!

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  10. the same ones Iota said. I feel the same as you. And I don't even have a baby at home. My brain just feels like mush and my writing has gone down the toilet. Note to self: Must try harder.

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  11. Interesting. This is the third post today addressing issues of 'blogging fatigue' or lack of blogging energy or similar.

    I'd rather hear you on politics but that's just me.

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  12. I think there is something about this time of year as well - I have half a dozen sort of thought about posts in my head but few are making it into a full post

    Hang on in there and take it as it comes - we'll still be here when you have the time and energy

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  13. Mission accomplished, enjoyed the light touch on all subjects which had my mind darting off in all the different directions, Much better than you sitting at the computer feeling stilted. Just started blogging myself and if you ever have a moment would appreciate some feedback. Look forward to your next tour of your thoughts,
    Alison

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  14. I am loving ALL those ideas. Maybe go with Iota though and start with the SAHM one...

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  15. Oh yes please! In fact if you do the SAHM one can I just copy and paste it to my blog and say "what she said"?! I'm in exactly the same position. Lots to say, but no time to say it, and no ability to say it in a way that does it justice when I do have time. Hence no reading either recently. Sorry....

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  16. Emily O - I can't even list the moany blog posts I want to write. It is too scary. I know so many women who feel the same about spending so much timje in education to spend their time cleaning up splattered puree. When I get the time I think I shall write that post...

    Emily O - they tap it straight from you during the night.

    Jackie - we are similar, my masters is in human rights and development and the PhD is (sort of) developmetn related. One day I might actually finish it. I'm so imporessed that you have!

    fiona - conkers good. I like conkers!

    NVG - there's a hard core of us who really are technophobes but apparently at the front of a technical revolution. NOt quite sure how!

    Met Mum - so true. The SAHM one seems to be ringing a bell with a lot of people.

    Owen - burden of guilt. know it so well.

    Modern Mother - you and Owen say the same thing. I just fancy being contraversial but know if I put my head above the parapet I need to have my arguments clear and my facts lined up beforehand!

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  17. Iota - glad to stricke a chord. And I know that looking after small children is so important, the most important. Sometimes I just need to remember that.

    HOM - hate feeling that my brain is mush. Just hate it.

    Dadwhowrites - I like writing about politics. I'll tackle the Bosnian situation, because I feel it is important and that Bosnia is being pushed out of the limelight when there is real potential for it to all fall apart again.

    Muddling Along - Thanks hun. I'll find the energy somehwere.

    Alison - thanks and good luck with the blogging. Hope you enjoy it - I'll pop over shortly.

    Potty - SAHM one is getting the votes

    PlanB - small children, especially babies, do eat up time. Even if they don't wee on you ;-)

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  18. There are times and places when being able to feel exhausted by the demands of kids is a luxury. That's what politics is about and that's why you need to keep reminding us about Bosnia. Thanks.

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