A Mission Statement

I have been tempted to join the blogosphere for a long time.  I've been reading blogs of people I don't know for four years, starting with infertility blogs and gradually moving towards parenting ones.  Through them, I found a network of virtual support, even if I had no direct contact with the writer.  Listening to the stories of other people at different points along the same emotional journey was more helpful than I can express in words.

Is it worth adding my voice to the multitudes that are already out there?  There's an often-quoted saying: 'It takes a village to raise a child.'  Of course, these days, it's an old-fashioned sentiment, since few people live in such a community.  Instead we have e-villages, as mothers exchange advice, beliefs and anecdotes on web-forums, social networking sites and blogs.

It's important to bear in mind that misinformation is often disseminated in this way, as we create the modern day version of 'old wives tales'.  Our personal accounts are based on our own experience which is too limited to compare to any scientific study; I cannot in all conscience tell anybody what they 'should' do.  My child-raising experience is limited to two children.  Even if you add in my experience working at a preschool, it's far too small a selection and too short a time frame for me to conclusively state anything as a fact.

However, I think this is a very feminine social phenomenon: women more often feel a need to articulate their problems and learn how others feel about it.  While anecdotal evidence cannot be considered proof of anything, it does provide a look at what it's like to experience the issue at hand.  The more anecdotes available, the clearer a picture can be drawn from them.

So here are my voice, my thoughts and my stories.  I intend for this blog to primarily be about parenting issues, but I am approaching it from a background of infertility, of raising children in a country not your own and of Montessori.  My own experience is diverse enough that I think it is worth blogging anyway, but as I said, I've drawn support from such blogs for four years so perhaps it's time to pay it forward.