A 28-year-old mother from
Islington has made history by becoming the first person to write an internet
diary about what life is like as a parent.
Maria Etherington posted
the first entry in her blog, Generic Modern Mummy, yesterday. The 200-word
post related an incident in which her 18-month-old son, Marcus, wouldn't eat
his broccoli.
Maria said: "He
was eating his fish fingers just fine, but he wouldn't touch the healthy stuff
on his plate, even though I'd arranged his greens so they looked a bit like a
dinosaur.
"And I got to thinking
'if this is moderately frustrating for me, just imagine how interesting and
engaging it would be for others, if only there was some way of relaying details of
this scenario to them'".
Maria then remembered that
her laptop included a keyboard and internet access. Things moved quickly from
there.
"Within two hours, I'd
set up my blog and had started writing about how Marcus not only doesn't like
broccoli, but also struggles with carrots too.
"Clicking the button
to make the article go live on the internet was a massive adrenaline
rush. I knew I was heading into unchartered waters – what would the world make
of this?
"I was absolutely
amazed when comments started coming in from other actual real life mums and
dads just like me. One dad said that his daughter hadn't touched a sprout in
months.
"I also had a really
nice email from the Guinness World Records team who confirmed that nobody else
has ever discussed the ups and downs of parenting in a publicly available
online forum. I should be getting a certificate in the post in the next day or
two.
"It's also given me
all sorts of ideas about other things people could write blogs about. For
instance, I sometimes wear make-up, and I know some of my friends do too, so
what about a beauty blog? It's just a thought.
"Also, these days
people will eat anything up to three meals a day, so a food blog might be
another option. Stop me if this is all sounding a bit wacky."
At 3pm on Wednesday, Maria
is inviting Facebook users to watch a live stream of a
three-and-a-half-hour tantrum after she asks Marcus to clear up his toys.
