Blog Tour: Why we write, How we write

I’m part of a blog tour where we write about our writing process and link up with other bloggers to introduce new blogs to their readers. I was linked by Dorothea, who blogs at A Pancake Princess. Some of you might have heard of her blog as I did a guest post for her Mother’s day series recently. For those who have not heard of her, she is a mummy to 2 little boys and she shares about the fun things she does with her boys, cool eateries, and lots of craft ideas too.

So these are the questions I’m supposed to share about:

What am I working on?

Even with so many kids, I can honestly say that I’m not very stressed. So I try to share what I do and how I do it with my readers, many who tell me that even with just 1 or 2, they are highly stressed! I also have a series of Life’s Lessons on Thursdays, which are stuff that I have learnt through the hard way, such as “Don’t scream at your child”, “A lesson on sincerity taught to me by #1”, “Marriage is no fairytale”, and many others. Some days I’m swarmed with running the household and I’m not ready with a Lessons post. I don’t fret about it, and just try to find some time to do one for the next week. I also have a Thankful Tuesdays series, which I link up to another very lovely mummy blogger of 3 kids, at Mum in the making. I think it is very important to remember to be thankful for everything we have, even the little things. Because if we don’t have a grateful heart, we can have the best, but still not appreciate it. We’ll be unsatisfied and probably unhappy. How poor we are then. Every week or so, I put up some pictures of our littlest one on “Kate’s antics”. This is just for some mid-week humour and many of our friends look forward to it. Many new mums also like it as a picture shows many aspects of a child’s development, and it’s just reassurance that their child is similar.

How does my work defer from others in its genre?

The fact that I have 6 kids makes my experiences and perspective a little different from other bloggers. I also notice that most other bloggers have children who are still young (mostly under 6) and as my eldest is already 15, I’m ahead of them in the curve and have different things to write about. I am also able to share with them what I have learnt over the years.

Why do I write what I do?

It started with several different groups of friends who enlightened me about this whole blogging arena, and they encouraged me to share my tips and experiences with new mothers. They also told me that I could get free stuff like diapers and milk powder, and I thought “That would be really nice! The 6 of them are getting really expensive to raise.”  Along the way, I started writing about our education system, which I feel very strongly about. In previous years, the only way I could voice my opinion was through the Forum page in the Straits Times. Now, I have the platform of my blog to do that. The whole pressure-cooker system of our education system has to be redefined, and it takes not only the Ministry, but the parents to work together to do something about it. The fact that the number of children who are seeking help from IMH is increasing is a very disturbing fact. My kids have a good childhood with lots of time for play, yet they still scored all As and A*s for their PSLE. I hope that more parents will see that there is more to life than spending 6 years preparing for 1 major examination.

How does my writing process work?

In the beginning, I thought I would probably write a post once a week because I can’t have that much to say. However, once I got started, I realised that I have so much to say, and if I had more time, I would probably churn out a post everyday. With 6 kids, there is something going on everyday, and new things I am experiencing that I want to share with my readers, be it about their learning, their upbringing, some recipe, some new place or family-friendly eatery. Currently I have about 30 drafts open as either someone has requested a topic or I come across something that I want to write about, and when I have a block of free time when the kids are all in school and Kate is napping or out with her grandparents, I’ll work on them bit by bit. In between, I will do posts which are about the day to day stuff that is happening.

Ok, that’s all from me. Next up on this blog tour is a link to another mummy blogger, Sandra. She is a mum to 2 beautiful kids and her husband is French. She blogs about her parenting experiences in a mixed culture marriage in Across Two Cultures.