Parenting Sites 411

Cass is one of my online mom friends, and someone I kind of think of as a mentor. She has eight children, which makes me look to her with awe, and she has great advice, which makes me keep going back and reading her blog over and over.

I sent her the interview questions a few weeks ago, but my recent travels pushed it back to today. Cass gave great answers and I know you will enjoy her:

Hi, I’m Cass. I live in coastal North Carolina. I have eight children who range in age from 19 to 1. They are all still at home. I have been married twice, and my current husband and I have been married for 14 years. He’s the last one, too.

I have been blogging since June of 2004. My first blog is www.cassknits.com (Cass Knits) and I talk about knitting, homeschooling and scouting there. On www.motheringmany.com (Mothering Many) I talk more about daily life with eight children: tips, tricks, ideas and such. I have many other blogs, but those are the only ones that I discuss actual parenting on.

I started blogging because I enjoyed reading other people’s blogs and wanted a place to show off the stuff I knit. I continue to blog because I find that I have a lot to say. Even more startling is that there are people who are actually interested in reading what I write. I enjoy blogging for the friendships I’ve made, and for the creative outlet.

I’m not sure I can say blogging helps me as a parent. Certainly reading other mother’s blogs helps me, though.

I do worry about safety for my kids. I’m very open about my family in general, with lots of pictures, as you’ve noted. I figured early on that I could post pictures or use names, and the pictures won out. Yes, there are topics I don’t discuss in my blogs. Does the whole world need to know the most minute details of my struggles to parent a teen? No. Can the world benefit from me noting what I’ve learned during those same struggles? Yes. But I can couch it so that both my dignity and that of my children is preserved. I don’t want to say things on my blog(s) now that they will regret later. That’s partly a respect for their privacy, and partly a wish to not appear as fallible as I really am.

My three oldest children have blogs, though only the oldest is an avid blogger.

Oh my. What do I do when I am not blogging? Well, I either knit, clean or sleep, LOL!

I rarely look up parenting advice online, but when I do, I go first to www.askdrsears.com (Ask Dr. Sears). His was the first parenting book I ever read that mentioned more than 3 children as if it were normal. His ideas are sound, and I heartily recommend his books, as well as his website.

As for parenting blogs I like to read, you’ll have to check out the sidebars of both the blogs I mentioned above. They are too numerous to list here.