Why I’m Proud to be a Blogger

Over the last couple of years, I have felt like more people in my life have started to understand more about blogging and what I do for a living. After conversations with some people, they have understood more about how it works and that I (usually) work hard.

But I think many people in my life still don’t really get it at all and perhaps think I don’t actually work because I don’t have a ‘proper job’. Do people see me as a ‘stay-at-home-mum’ even though my daughter is 7-years-old and is in her third year at school?

I wonder if people see me going out for lunch with friends and not realise that that will often mean that I will do some of my work in the evening or at the weekend instead. Even though it may look that way, I can’t just take time off whenever I want to and not make the time up elsewhere.

Yes, I can probably go out with you on a weekday, and I can spend an entire day with my sister and her new baby mid-week. But I never take a proper holiday unless I am actually going away somewhere, and even then I will most likely still be doing bits and bobs (and I haven’t been on a proper holiday in two years), and I usually do some work at the weekend.

I am not saying all of this in a defensive way; I am proud of what I do — I love it. I love that I can take my daughter to and from school every day, that I make money from my writing, that I get to work at home in comfy clothes and make a cup of tea whenever I damn well please — and I also completely understand that it is not for everyone and that many still don’t really ‘get it’. And I’m okay with that.

It has just crossed my mind recently that perhaps some people in my life who aren’t quite as close to me think that I am a housewife or a stay-at-home mum who doesn’t really work. Not that there is anything wrong with being those things if that’s what you want to be and can afford to do it. But that is not what I am.

Even though I feel weird saying it; I run my own business. Not one with a physical product to sell, but a business all the same.

I am a self-employed blogger and freelance writer.

Until I started to make more money from it, I would feel silly calling myself that. Hell, I still feel slightly silly telling someone new that that is what I do; like it is some silly little hobby that I shouldn’t be wasting my time on and I should go out and get a ‘proper’ job to support my family.

But God, this isn’t that; it isn’t just a silly little hobby: I make money from this, I run it all myself, I do my own taxes, I am constantly in contact with PR’s and brands, I design my own blog logos and website layout. I work hard at it and there’s a lot that goes into it.

The outside perception of blogging has started to change as more people understand it and see it as a proper ‘thing’. But I know there are a lot who still don’t and probably think I just put out a quick tweet or Facebook post occasionally and that’s about it. That’s fine because I don’t do it for them and their opinion doesn’t affect what I do or how I feel about it. I would love everyone in my life to understand exactly what I do, but it also doesn’t matter that they don’t.

I absolutely love it and I’m very proud to be a blogger.

Now if only I could find the perfect way to describe what I do when someone asks, in a way that shows that I am proud of what I do and explains it well, rather than a bumbling “uhh, uhm, I am a writer, well a blogger and I do some freelance stuff online too *laughs awkwardly…*”.