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Baby Center recently released a survey about how more and more millennial moms are becoming bloggers. It’s totally true. Moms today want to stay home with our kids while bringing in an income, and blogs help us to do that.

But what I find more curious is why we, collectively as moms, all read mom blogs. There’s a blog for everything these days, and we read them all the time. They help guide our parenting, they inform our decisions, they make us laugh or cry. But why? Our moms and their moms never read mom blogs, so why do we millennial moms all obsess over them?

The Real Reason We All Read Mom Blogs

Moms Have No Village

It’s super cliche, but everyone has heard that “it takes a village to raise a child”. Millennial moms don’t have that village anymore.

We have to schedule playdates to see other moms regularly, and most of us couldn’t tell you much about our neighbors. As moms, we really want someone to “be there” for us, even if that just means literally being there to say “I do that too”.

Beyond that, the mommy wars have made making mom friends more difficult. It’s gotten to the point where moms try to mainly hang out with similar moms, and it makes sense. I homeschool, so if a mom-friend public schools she might feel (falsely) like I look down on her for it, and visa versa.

Combine those, and having a solid group of mom-friends to connect with and raise children together is nearly impossible. Finding a mom blog that matches up closely with your parenting style and makes you feel like you’re not alone.

Moms Have No Time

Moms today are busier than moms from any previous generation. We’re taking our kids to soccer practice, dance, preschool, co-op, waiting an hour in the pickup line, going to the grocery store, cleaning the house, going to karate practice, and still getting dinner on the table. (Well, I don’t do that last one, but most moms do!)

Connecting with other moms isn’t as easy as walking out the front door in the summertime. We need scheduled playdates, and technology to keep in touch. I don’t see any of my friends on a weekly basis, and I see very few even monthly. But I can talk to them 24/7 thanks to technology.

Our generation grew up online. That’s where we connect naturally. We can text our friend in 2 seconds rather than have a 45 minute phone call. We can stay up to date with our friends by checking their Instagram and Facebook pictures. We don’t have time to sit and chat like we used to.

Because of this, it makes sense that we get connection from mom blogs. We like to read about another mom who feels like she’s failing her son or is overwhelmed by homeschooling.

Moms All Feel Like We’re Failing

Every. Single. One of us.

Again, the “mommy wars” are partly to blame. Whatever parenting decision we make, there’s someone out there to tell us that we did it wrong and all of the reasons that their decision is the only right one.

Beyond that, we’re the most careful generation in years, and we’re bound and determined not to mess up. Because of this, we’re told all the different ways we can mess up our kids, and it seems like as a parent we’re destined to fail.

• Don’t say no to your kids or they’ll lose their confidence.
• Don’t say yes to your kids or they’ll be a brat.
• Don’t call your daughter pretty because it teaches her that beauty is everything.
• Call your daughter pretty or she’ll get a complex.
• Don’t give your kids time outs or they’ll feel isolated.
• Give your kids time outs so they have time to calm down and refresh.

And on and on and on. We’re fed information from everywhere, and there’s no way to be right all the time. When you’re constantly being told how everything you’re doing is wrong and you’re going to ruin your kids, it’s comforting to read about other moms figuring it out too.

Mom bloggers don’t know everything. We’re failing mama’s just like you. Somehow it feels better to see that even the mom bloggers with the beautiful websites and big bright images are as human as we are.

Moms of This Generation Weren’t Taught

On the flip side, we’re also one of the first generation that grew up with the majority of our moms working and being the typical “mom” that had been the norm previously.

Many of us millennial moms didn’t learn traditional momming because of that. We didn’t learn to cook and manage a house. Some of us went to college not knowing how to do laundry. We don’t know how to hem buttons, manage a tantrum, or choose the right homeschool curriculum.

We’ve had to teach ourselves. We all read mom blogs because they teach us to be better moms. They have advice on baby sleep hacks and how to fight for your special needs kids.

Momming is Freaking Hard

This is what it all boils down to. It’s really flipping hard to be a mom today, and mom blogs help make it a bit easier. They help us connect with people from around the world that we never would have met. They help us get advice for the specific struggles we’re facing. And they make us laugh or cry or nod our heads while we read.

A post from a mom blog post is an “I do that too” right when you need it. Or it’s a “how about you try this instead” or it’s even a “hey, try this fun thing we just did”. Mom blogs become a trusted friend for moms all over the country and all over the world.

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About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.