You may have noticed the link to Technorati in my sidebar. Technorati allows me to see all sorts of fascinating information about who has been looking at my blog. We're talking things like what colour pants they've got on (pants in the UK sense of 'underpants', American readers), whether they've ever smoked a joint, and how they voted at the last election.
Oh okay, not quite as much information as that. It does allow me to see the referring pages people have used to get here, how long they spend, and which other blogs link here. Just today I found out that an American chap called Papa Bradstein is reading my pages, and that he thinks I nicked his idea for a dad survey from his site because he posted it a link to mine on his blog. He's wrong about nicking his idea - I visited his blog for the first time today - but it does demonstrate the power of this blogging thing.
I've mentioned before that us dads to be are pretty badly catered for, in many respects. I did mention the 'Dad Pack' from the DfES but in general, we don't really get a huge number of resources that look at things from our perspective. Thus, things like emailing all the dads I know with a load of questions. Thus, Papa Bradstein is now in my sidebar along with other blogging dads. It seems that we're using informal networks to get information that isn't really well provided for elsewhere.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I realise that there's loads and loads of dads who aren't really bothered or interested in reading dad books and dad blogs, and that's fair enough. I also realise that there's an enormous number of blogging mothers-to-be out there, and I'm not suggesting only dads can blog. It's just it's reassuring to know that there's all these other blokes out there that have similar questions and anxities to me. Of course, K___ and I talk about the pregnancy all the time, and that's the most important, but it's really fantastic to be able to check out what other blokes in the same situation are doing and thinking.
Writing one of these things tends to necessarily be a somewhat intimate thing and you get a pretty good idea of the types of men that are writing these things (shit; that means they know what a twat I am...) so you know whether a particular piece of advice or a notion comes from someone completely la la or in tune with you. It can help clarify your own thoughts, even if you end up disagreeing (circumcision being a good example)!
So, to all of you out there reading this, a big thank you.
And to the dads-to-be that are reading this, I hope there's something in what I write that is as useful to you as the stuff I get from yours. Bless you, chaps!
Right... off to nick some ideas for tomorrow's entry from Zygote Daddy...
Ya, it's been great reading other Daddy blogs for me too. How come I'm not on your list??
ReplyDeleteNothing personal, Jon! I didn't think you were going public with your blog yet, so was keeping it private. I will add it right away!
ReplyDeleteCripes! I just noticed that you nicked my Blogger template too, you cheeky bastard.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, thanks for the shout out. I'm aiming to steal something from you now--a post on circumcision, which is actually a long-delayed response to a series of comments left for me on an initial post on it.
I was interested to read both your post on it and some of the discussion on Brand New Dad and got to thinking that I'd better finally reply.