When I first started blogging I gave up journaling. I had kept a journal since I was 6 years old and I loved pouring my heart out onto its pages. When I started blogging, it felt like I didn’t have time for both. It’s difficult to start a mommy blog and still have time to be a mom. Something has to give. My kids were my top priority so I gave up the other things that made me whole. My journal sat in a drawer, unused. I thought blogging could take its place.

The difference between blogging and journaling though, is there is no judgment with journaling. Journaling is simply your truest thoughts on paper, a record of where your soul has traveled. Blogging is public, and anyone is free to make a judgment on your thoughts. Whether you invite them to or not, judgment will come in some form. I gave up my personal blog when a family member used it against me. Several times I have gone as far as setting up a new blog with a new name and a new design thinking that I would be able to move on from the hurt that this person has caused but as it turns out, I’m just not there yet. So I blog in relative anonymity and blogging, while I still love it, sometimes becomes more of a job than a place to express the things that are truly part of who I am.

While I still won’t say a bad blogging experience was for the best, it has helped me to rediscover journaling and I’ve realized that blogging and journaling do not have to compete with each other. They work independently and have different purposes.

Blogs can be used to:

• share daily family events with extended family or friends
• find support from other moms who have been there done that
• develop new friendships to prevent feeling isolated as a stay at home mom
• network with businesses that provide products or services that are relevant to moms and kids
• earn an income from home
• establish yourself as an expert in your field
• promote work at home businesses
• create an outlet for your thoughts to relieve stress

Journaling provides:

• a place to share your emotions without fear of judgment from others
• an opportunity to write by hand if you choose, which can be very cathartic
• a hard copy record of your life, filled with the truly important things rather than current trends
• a place to work through your emotions as they happen without needing to filter your words
• a way to work through life’s problems without burdening someone else
• cheap therapy
• opportunities for meditation
• a way to decompress at the end of a busy day
• does not require perfection

Blogging and journaling provide us with different things. I used to think that because I blogged, I didn’t need to journal but blogging absolutely does not take the place of journaling. In a way, blogging took something from me by making me feel like I had outgrown my journal. I’m still not sure if I’ll ever be able to move forward and reopen my personal blog. For now I’m happy to provide information rather than allow my life to be shared in the unique way that happens with personal blogging. I’m starting to remember how peaceful journaling used to make me feel, from age 6 on, and I’m making a return to the hand-written word. Blogging is what it is, and it is wonderful but, at least for me, I’ve discovered it does not replace good old fashioned journaling.