If we go with the trend of calling what's going on online "Web 2.0" then surely I am in some kind of motherhood 2.0 too. It feels a lot like being an e-mom (with the hyphen) back in the late 90s early 00s. Except now my daughter's 8 not an almost-two-year-old. And now I work for myself, not for an omniconglomerate.
If this is your first Internet motherhood -- for those women who weren't in the workforce last time around or weren't mothers last time around -- here's what's new:
This time: Laptops with built in wireless so mom's can cook, drive, change diapers, and go to softball games with one hand tied behind their backs (or tied to their laptops)
Last time: Kids tripping over cat-5 cables if you were lucky enough to have DSL. Many moms stuck on dial-up and a stationary PC while children roamed the neighborhood looking for NON-working stay-at-home moms to feed them something other than cheese puffs.
This time: Conferences, conferences, conferences.
Last time: Conference calls, conference calls, conference calls.
This time: Family members brag to others that you're a "Famous Blogger."
Last time: Family members wrote you out of their wills for telling those dirty little secrets in public.
This time: You work 15-hour days with companies all over the world in your sweats, connected by the net, skype, wikis, jotspot, and the like.
Last time: You worked 15-hour days chained in a cubicle using your company LAN and surfed the net when no one was looking, pumping breast milk in the ladies room -- or you job-shared.
This time: You and your kids build amazon wishlists together to put on their blogs.
Last time: You and your kids bought other people's used junk on ebay.
This time: You upload and share dozens pictures of your children in two clicks with a $100 digital camera and a web-based program.
Last time: You were the first person on the block to have a $600 digital camera that held 8 pictures and all of them were of the floor.
This time: Tatoo Fruit Rollups
Last time: Oreos
