{"id":1774,"date":"2006-08-25T09:15:12","date_gmt":"2006-08-25T09:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/25\/whose_life_is_i\/"},"modified":"2016-04-25T11:41:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T18:41:31","slug":"whose_life_is_i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/25\/whose_life_is_i\/","title":{"rendered":"WHOSE LIFE IS IT, ANYWAY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At BlogHer there was a great debate among the “mommy bloggers” about how much to reveal about one’s children.\u00a0 Much of what was best in my career (as well as, of course, my private life) came from my kids – literally.\u00a0 They’re why I finally wrote a book [for kids<\/a>.] They’re why I got interested in kids’ books and began writing book reviews for the New York Times and Washington Post and eventually served as early children’s book editor at Amazon.\u00a0 They’re the reason I did some of my best TV pieces – about kids learning to ski, learning disabilities, etc.\u00a0 You get the idea.\u00a0 BUT<\/p>\n

Once they were over 7 or so I always asked before I mentioned them in anything I wrote.\u00a0 I kind of felt that it was my gig and they had their own lives.\u00a0 Now this is a problem.\u00a0 Michael Chabon<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

\u201cTelling the truth, when the truth matters most, is almost always a frightening prospect. If a writer doesn\u2019t give away secrets, his own or those of the people he loves; if she doesn\u2019t court disapproval, reproach and general wrath, whether of friends, family, or party apparatchiks; if the writer submits his work to an internal censor long before anyone else can get their hands on it, the result is pallid, inanimate, a lump of earth. <\/em><\/p>\n

He’s right I think – I can feel myself hanging back when those “other people’s secrets” begin to emerge — and if affects my writing.\u00a0 It’s true even of the most innocent things: something really lovely was said to me this week by one of my kids but it would expose HIM and I can’t do it.
\nGranted, most moms who blog have far younger kids than my adult sons but it’s an interesting question.\u00a0 Any thoughts?<\/p>\n

Whatever we think about this though it gave me an excuse to share one of my favorite Michael Chabon quotes. (of very very many…)<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At BlogHer there was a great debate among the “mommy bloggers” about how much to reveal about one’s children.\u00a0 Much of what was best in my career (as well as, of course, my private life) came from my kids – literally.\u00a0 They’re why I finally wrote a book [for kids.] They’re why I got interested … Continue reading WHOSE LIFE IS IT, ANYWAY?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,6,52],"tags":[830,251,3417,2561,379,204,2206,1921],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-culture","category-weblogs","tag-blogging","tag-books-2","tag-family","tag-michael-chabon","tag-mom","tag-mother","tag-privacy","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-sC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}