Posted byWhen I first started thinking about Offbeat Mama last summer, the biggest issue for me was wanting to make sure that the site wasn’t dogmatic, and felt welcoming to folks from all sorts of backgrounds. As I say on Offbeat Bride: “you shouldn’t like everything you see here, and that’s just fine!” It’s hard to translate that kind of open minded acceptance to a parenting site … the stakes are just so much higher when little lives are involved.
But I think maybe, just maybe, it’s working. I just got this email from a reader:
I love your site! I am the mother of one beautiful grown daughter and hoping to become and “offbeat grandmama” before too many more years. I am also almost mama to 3 of my sister’s kids (they call me Tmama), so I guess I have been an Offbeat Mama for a long time.
What I love is that I totally don’t agree with some of the stuff on here, but everybody so much loves their kids that it totaly doesn’t matter.
Thanks for the education!
My goal is that more of us can get to that point: we’re not going to agree on everything, but we can respect the love that goes into each decision.
My sister in law introduced me to offbeat bride (unfortunately after my wedding) and now to offbeat mama, which I am not yet but hope to be soon. But I must say that having a space in which you don’t have to fall into a certain group or type is so refreshing and empowering. After looking through both sites and reading so many amazing peoples words it reminds me that, though we are all unique and different at the end of the day we are all the same in our love, our devotion, and our understanding. Thank you for having such an amazing voice and giving an outlet to so many other amazing voices!
Yes, Ariel! Exactly. You and I have had comment conversations before on how awesome it is to feel united by our love for our children, even when we come in at opposite ends of the opinion spectrum. This is the main reason why Offbeat Mama is pretty much the only “Mama-blog” I read. Really.
So, yeah. Good job! It’s working. 🙂 And thank you and Stephanie so much for making it work. 🙂
Now that I am married I consider OBM the perfect place to re-educate myself about what having kids means instead of what I’ve known from the media. I love that somethings on here I knew about, some I didn’t know about but I WANT WANT WANT to do, and others things I’m not into, but I am so happy that it works for others.
Such a healthy attitude here rather than “We are mama, you will be assimilated…”
I totally agree. I think this site has offered a lot of advice and information to prepare for parenthood. It has made me consider many thing and realize so much that I hadn’t before.
There are soo many parenting things that I have never heard about before, things that I don’t think I would do for myself but I find interesting to read about. I find this website extremely educational in preparing me for my future in motherhood.
For example I’m not so sure how I felt about Artificial Implantation or whatever it’s called but reading Ariel’s story really made me see how it can work for some people and understand different opinions. I’m still not sure if I would use it for myself but I am learning not to judge others.
I have considered writing you a similar email! I totally find myself disagreeing with some of the articles posted, but unlike other sites I occasionally disagree with, the content is so NON dogmatic that I just move one to another post and continue to love the site!
You do a great job keeping things snark free and respectful. We need more great and tolerant internet attitudes. I hope you find more success and spread your light!
That’s Peachy Mean! I love her. Baby Olympia is very lucky to have such amazing and creative parents. You’ve never seen anything cuter than Olympia at a derby game with her gigantic noise-canceling headphones on!