'Mummy bloggers' do have a voice. #Syria

When I started this blog back in 2008, I had no idea I was becoming a 'Mummy Blogger'. I had read a couple of things about blogging, and decided to start a humorous journal about the area in which i was living (London's 'Nappy Valley'). Little did I know that there was a small (at that time) and relatively select group of women all blogging about parenthood, raising families and just generally the state of womanhood at a certain age. After discovering a few of them, linking to their blogs and getting some hilarious comments on mine in return, I happily fell into their ranks.

Since then, the UK parent blogging scene has exploded. There are literally thousands of blogs; there's an annual conference (BritMums, to which I have never actually made it, being marooned in the US); there are forums, awards, events and an entire flotilla of PRs dedicated to targeting us. There has been some negative publicity too, about bored stay-at-home housewives with nothing better to do, bloggers stealing jobs from 'proper' paid journalists (of which I am one, and I don't agree with this at all); mummies wasting time on the internet while their kids are parked in front of the TV (as opposed to Dads surfing the net for hours at work while their wife looks after the kids).

But I believe 'Mummy Blogging' is an important movement. It has given a voice to thousands of intelligent women with opinions - not just about child-rearing, but about the world, about the role of women, about life in general - that ought to be heard. And never is that more important than when there's a global issue that needs to be shouted about. I'm talking about Syria.

Today, the Mummy blogging community is coming together to make a stand about the horrors that are taking place in Syria - the massacres, particularly of children, that the world is standing by and hearing about without (so far) intervention.

From a US perspective, I've been reading about the situation, and about why Obama has hesitated, in the New York Times today. The article makes many interesting points, including that the Syrian army is a much more daunting force than, say, Libya, being strong militarily and helped by the Russians. But it also argues that this could be Obama's Bosnia; that there is a point at which, despite any misgivings about intervention, the powerful countries of the world cannot stand by. And I agree. Have we learned nothing from the past? Do we really want another Bosnia, another Rwanda, which we'll be looking back on in 10 years, aghast that we did nothing to step in earlier?

If you feel like this too, then go and read this post and this post and this post. And spread the word. And re-tweet. Because we female bloggers are a powerful voice in social media. And we've seen over the past year what social media can do in times of political strife. This time, we're not prepared to stand and watch.