with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
Categories: Uncategorized, mothers in the media
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On Monday, The Today Show did a segment on “Digital Moms”. They featured mommy blogger, Heather Armstrong and the founder of CafeMom. While these two women did a great job handling the questions and representing their respective web sites, the segment itself didn’t do much to dispel old myths about women.
The impression for many women watching the segment (myself included) was that, once again, women were portrayed as mothers who sit around gossiping with one another about childbirth. Full stop.
Of course now, and isn’t this cute, we’re doing it on the internet.
The frustrating part is that I see women every day taking advantage of the internet and new technology to do a lot more than chat about motherhood. Sure, we tend to be social creatures by nature. And yes, we use blogs and twitter and portal sites like Work It, Mom! to connect with other like minded women.
But we’re doing heck of a lot more than talking about what it’s like to be a mother.
As a full time working mom, I use the Internet to be more productive in my family, personal and work life. Just like my male counterparts do.
At work, I recently designed and implemented an email marketing and follow up system that is fully integrated with our customer database. That system was responsible for doubling our profits the very first month we launched it.
Speaking of a customer database, our entire client management system is accessed online, making it possible for me to work remotely and for all of our various departments around the country to coordinate with one another. I have yet to use that system to swap notes about child rearing with a co-worker.
What I have done is exchanged notes with my boss and our writer about potential topics to discuss on our corporate blog, and strategies to generate traffic to our main web site from that blog. You know, by harnessing the power of the Internet.
I’m on the Internet for 8-10 hours every work day, and a small percentage of that time is spent chit chatting with my fellow moms about my toddler’s behavior and language development. When I do get together with other mothers online, it’s not just to swap parenting techniques. We discuss politics and health care and the effects of plastic bags on the environment. We use email and text messaging and twitter to stay connected and to stay informed.
Being a digital mom is no longer just about using the Internet to talk to other stay at home moms. In fact, I don’t know if it ever was just about that. But, for some reason, our online social habits are what make the news.
What about you? Do you consider yourself a digital mom? (I’m going to assume so since, you know, you’re here.) Are using the Internet to do more than “connect with other moms”?
Amen sister. How about . . . work, making money, making our lives more efficient so we can spend it with our families, creative outlet, teaching kids about the world, staying informed . . . . etc etc etc
Elaine at Lipstickdaily | March 12th, 2009 at 5:33 am
I loved this post! I would say that I use the internet and “social networking” primarily for business purposes. Maybe 10% of the time is for “personal” stuff. Since my line of business is helping moms in leadership blend management and motherhood, I am interacting on mom message boards and such, but really to connect with my target market as opposed to get personal support or chit chat about parenting issues.
I also know that the reality for the majority (if not all) of my clients is that nearly all their time spent on the internet is for work purposes. That’s one of the reasons I ended up focusing my coaching on business leaders and managers who are moms is because they need their own way to get the support and guidance, both personally and professionally, that they need to feel good about their dual roles.
I know from my own personal experience that if I am not using the internet or my technology to support my business or help me be more efficient in my life or provide some much-needed information, then I would rather not be on them. I’d rather use the time to connect with my husband, enjoy my time with my kids, take some time for myself or my friends.
Nicola Ries Taggart | March 12th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Outstanding post!
Congrats for doubling your profits… well done!
When is it going to go mainstream that women using the internet is as efficient and valuable as men. After ALL, we ARE the key 50%.
Kate @ | March 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pm