Parent publishes world's first parenting blog

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.