Kerry Sauriol started Crunchy Carpets early in 2007 while raising two young children in a house in Vancouver. Given the circumstances, Kerry was destined to give birth to a Mom Blog. Two years later, her digital toddler is slowly growing into a Mom Blog monster.
Unless you’ve got kids, you may not understand the appeal of Parenting Blogs. It’s the premier shared experience for women, pregnant or otherwise. This genre has become increasingly popular as there are always plenty of readers, plenty of writers, and lots of good stories. Styled as a friendly conversation, Mom Blogs are usually short reviews or some relevant life observation followed by a long list of very opinionated comments.
Before blogging, Kerry spent time on parenting discussion forums. “I loved making friends and sharing news and views and generally being opinionated on whatever struck my fancy,” she explains. “With a blog…well, that is an ENTIRE site to warble on about what I think about things.”
Because of the sheer numbers, it can be discouraging for some writers to carve their own niche and create an individual voice. Crunchy Carpets appeals to everyone in the niche because it’s a little different. While insisting that her blog is not a “parenting blog”, Kerry says she doesn’t give useful tips to parents. But ever since she started, she has offered plenty of insights into her family life, and always shares her thoughts on life from her perspective as Mom. She tells her readers the most personal things you can imagine – like how she is currently suffering from a painful hemorrhoid! She confesses her maternal anxieties over her kids’ schooling, family health issues, and she constantly alludes to her own moral, physical and spiritual shortcomings. Her simple prose is likable and compelling; it compels readers to comment on her posts. Even when they disagree with what she writes their admiration and respect for Kerry is obvious in courteous diction.
Stay at home Moms often feel lonely, and so Kerry is comforted by the sense of community and friendship that she’s discovered online. The ability to share advice and commiserate with other like-minded people has become Kerry’s favourite part of Crunchy Carpets. “When I lost my son last December, at 26 weeks along in my pregnancy, the out pouring of support that I received from readers was incredible. It was such a help to me during a truly horrendous and dark time” she recounts.
Reading Kerry’s posts is like chatting with a friend over a cup of coffee. An entry like More Bad Mothering gives readers her own straight-up views and lists her pet peeves in a sauce of motherhood anxieties. Clash O’ the Momma Bears is a well-written heartfelt post with an emotional trigger. And finally here is one of Kerry’s first posts, where she explains what it really means to have carpets with a crunch.
Aside from Crunchy Carpets, Kerry also controls another portal called Wet Coast Women that started as a community for female bloggers and has become enormously popular. The content on this portal is strictly non-parental. And also Kerry’s Twitter account gives her “instant access to new and interesting blogs and stories”. Blogging connects Kerry Sauriol to ‘mom friends’ all over North America. And you? Are you her next friend?
Melissa’s profile on Blogger has been viewed almost 10,000 times since she joined in October 2004. That’s because her blogs tell stories about gardening, fabric dyeing and how to make garden art from junk. She blogs about the birds and the bees, and about motherhood and vegan food, and she has an empire of dirt from which all this goodness grows.
For a few years, the blog was a fun place to write for Melissa. But eventually her oldest daughter became self-conscious about being included in her mom’s posts, and asked to be kept out of it. “Gasp! That was the end of my best material! I continued blogging but it seemed muted to leave her out, but I had to respect her wishes…” And so, she shifted her blogging efforts to a new site, and Empress of Dirt was born.
Blogging comes natural for Melissa; she’s a compulsive photographer and loves to write. Her pictures are beautiful before Photoshop, and impress folks interested in gardening, flowers or rare butterflies. In a recent post named 
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