To be or not to be...that is the question!

Thank Goodness for Mama Kat over at Mama Kat's Losin It. After that last blog post of mine my brain and heart were a bit sore and so I had to take a day off from blogging to recover.

Actually I had to take Sam to see the child psychologist today at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital to discuss some issues he has been having with aggression and meltdowns. Both are relatively common in adolescent boys with autism.

You may be wondering what on earth those last two sentences have to do with Mama Kat.

Well, it doesn't have anything to do with her directly, but it does have to do with one of her writing prompts for this week and that is why I bring it up.

I see many bloggers as being split into 2 defined groups:

1. Bloggers who write about their lives without changing the real names, locations, and day to day activities
2. Bloggers who use pseudonyms for either themselves or their children or both and do not go into detail about their locations and activities.

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows that I  fall into the first category of bloggers. I use my boy's real names, I talk about living in the state of Maryland and when I recently remarried I even included a link to the video invitation.  Holy Cow, look at that!  I just did it again?  I must be crazy!  Right?

Not necessarily. 

The main reason I don't use aliases for myself, my husband, or my children is not because I laugh in the face of possible stalkers and pedophiles but instead its because I am a miserable liar.


I guarantee that if I was to make up cutesy names for my boys in place of their real names it would take me less than 2 posts to forget I had done it and call them by their given names again.  I'd probably write a post and hit publish and immediately remember I was supposed to change the names and then take no less than four edits to replace the real names with their fake ones.

As for me, I have always been an open book.  I don't shy away from potentially embarrassing situations like posting a video of me smacking my own ass as I dance along with my wii or sharing horrific pictures from my youth of clothing and hairstyles gone wrong. 

I am also one of those people who you do not want to ask a question of if you do not really want my answer.  Case in point is a dear friend of mine who every time I see her wants to know if she looks thinner?  Does she?  No.  Does she look like she's gained weight?  Yes.  A whopping 3 pounds in the past 12 years after 3 children and 3 c-sections.  By all accounts she is a picture of health and beauty.   I, on the other hand, have lost and gained back the same 25 pounds in the past 5 years at least 3 times.  I just cannot bring myself to lie to her.  When I lie my face gets all smiley and I fumble and fidget.  She'd see through me in a second and then what would happen?  She would never ask me another serious question ever again. 

So, Anylie...don't ask me a question if you don't want the truth.

And as for Mama Kat's friend Brea from Tomika's Treasure Trove who has recently had an anonymous troll commenter giving her a hard time about using her daughter's real name and photo on her personal blog I would kindly offer her a reminder.  Its your blog!  Not everyone is going to agree 100% of the time with what you say, the photos you post, and the color of the shirt you wore with those pants when you were in 3rd grade.  Every blogger has at some time or another had someone leave a steaming pile of a comment on their blog because they didn't like what that person said that day.  In my opinion the worst thing you could do is bend to the opinion of one commenter who doesn't even have the guts to leave their real name and change the content of your blog that is obviously working well for you and your readers.  Plus, your disclaimer on the sidebar of your blog rocks the house! 

Now why didn't I think of that?!