Mommy blogger brouhaha is the new Mary Kay

I must admit I was horrified. I read someone's long, long, LOOONG post about how she was not, after all, participating in a one-week PR mommy blogger blackout in August. She couldn't take it! Too horrible! She had to make money to feed the kids, after all, and one week down... oh dear. Her counter-proposal: a brownout.

Wha? To paraphrase: This is not my mommyblogging life... this are not my mommyblogging family. How did we get here? Somehow, the admirable aim of creating online journals about one's life as a mother -- as I see it, as a virtual scrapbook/therapy session/support group/community, a way for moms to solve the isolation we so often feel by reading others' stories and providing each other with valuable advice and feedback, the Red Tent of the 21st century -- has devolved into a Mary Kay party. And just like a "party" at which you are meant to make commissions from your friends' desire for a little companionship, all the reasons I felt special, invited, part of something are really just ways to make a little cash on my click. The so-called "mommy blogs" the FTC has down-cracked by suggesting disclosure rules are no more online parenting journals than Tupperware parties are festive get-togethers to entertain friends. It's all selling, and it should be treated as such; and I can see nothing at all wrong with transparency and sincerity.