A Mother's Take on Blogging

by Heather Lochner

It wasn’t long ago that certain words were whispered behind closed doors. Secretly told to close friends and family. Words like, “post partum depression”, “troubles with breast feeding”, “mommy blues”, or “this is hard” were softly spoken and laden with shame and fear.

Approximately five years ago, a revolution of sorts began to unfold. Snippets of truth began to seep onto the internet and into the public sphere; women began to have a voice. In Canada, the upheaval was spearheaded by Catherine Connors, aka HerBadMother (herbadmother.com), and founder of The Bad Moms Club.

She single-handedly typed her words out, changing the internet landscape for moms while breaking down barriers. She showed women it was okay to be unhappy, okay to share those sad, scared feelings, and most importantly, okay to support each other in an open and honest way.

“We live in a vast country with many remote villages, small towns, and urban cities,” says Catherine. “The power of blogs and social media is that it unites us, no matter where we live, reducing those feelings of isolation.”

Catherine’s tone is 'real'; putting it all out there through a variety of mediums – from Twitter to blogging. And while she may take some flack for sharing anything and everything about her children, including their names; she stands by her documentation of her family life.

But Catherine didn’t stop there; she took it one step further and enlightened parents on the power of the internet, blogs, social media and more. “I was one of the first mom bloggers to push the idea that people in social media have a responsibility to use their platforms for good,” explains Catherine. 

She has blogged extensively in support of muscular dystrophy awareness (and started the #TutusForTanner movement on Twitter), and she highlights the issue of post partum depressions on her blog. “I also am passionately committed to raising awareness about how HIV and AIDS affects mothers and children in the developing world,” says Catherine. She is now aligned with the Global Fund and their Born HIV Free project and with mothers2mothers (www.m2m.org) to get those stories into the flow of discussion on the Internet.

Today, Catherine is still blogging, and doing much much more. She has worked tirelessly to bring BlissDom to Canada (October 12—15, 2011) and is consulting with multi-million dollar corporations, speaking on panels with the likes of Christy Turlington, and mingling with influencers like Al Gore.

Talk to any Canadian female blogger or social media-lite and there is no doubt Catherine inspired them in some way, shape or form to share, express themselves, connect, and engage.