I started blogging in 2007 under the original name ‘MamaNeena.’ I had two babies under the age of 3, I was very pregnant with my 3rd child, and my husband traveled all the time. I found blogging to be the outlet I needed as I navigated my way as a young mother with 3 children dangerously close together in age. I could vent, interact with other adults, and share any tips and tricks I found that helped me be a better parent.
Fast forward a couple of years and I finally felt like I found my footing as a parent. I found a routine and a schedule that made me feel less like I was losing my mind and more like I could do this and do it well. I rebranded the blog and adopted the name ‘hooey!critic’ – an acronym of my maiden name and my married name. I started blogging about the crazy antics that came with returning to school for a PhD while trying to maintain this belief that I could still be the perfect housewife and mother. Cheeky of me, yes?! I can’t stress how close to imperfect I actually was and still am!
This brings us to the present. I recently finished school, earned that PhD by writing one of the first dissertations ever to focus specifically on Mommy Bloggers, and have returned to being a housewife full-time. It’s hard transitioning back to the land of domesticity after spending three years being analytical, critical, and constantly thinking about research. But I’m doing it. Why? Why not just return to the workforce and put that PhD to some use? Frankly, I don’t want to do that.
While I was in school I felt a push, okay maybe a nudge, to return home – to embrace my domestic life and learn to love this role. I began to ache to return to my babies and my husband in the capacity we originally intended. I’m blessed to be able to do it. I’m so lucky to have the option to continue staying home and focusing on the way our family wants to live.
In many ways this means the blog is changing. No, evolving. This blog is evolving to accommodate who I am today: a housewife with a PhD, a coffee addict, a lover of books, and girl learning to love this simple life I have been given. My children are getting a bit older and I’m not sure how comfortable I feel focusing on them as much anymore. And that’s okay. This blog is my place to share. This blog started as a place for me and it needs to return to that. Call it a niche. Call it focus. Call it a mission statement if you want. But really it’s just me…
A wife. A mother. A woman. A reluctant feminist with a domestic agenda and a PhD. And a blog where the dreams and the whimsy of it all come together…
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
-Arthur O’Shaughnessy
Thank you, little blog.
Neena
