Live blogging the CyberMummy 2011 Crowdsourced Keynote

Tissues at the ready, here I am live blogging the Crowdsourced Keynote at Cybermummy11, the UK's premier parent blogging conference.  It's been a long and wonderful day, so much information, and now I feel as if I am creeping to the top of an emotional rollercoaster.  Yes it's the moment where we hear from the bloggers.  Real blog posts are about to be shared on stage.  We're tired, we're emotional.  But I really feel for the bloggers on stage, who have been anticipating this big soul bearing moment all day.  


Live blogging this felt like a huge responsibility, so many fragile and emotional moments, so many life defining events.  If I have misinterpreted anything please email or DM me (@Aresidence), it was a challenge to do this justice as a live blog.


Jen is just introducing, and explaining last year had everyone in tears.  Gulp.  I will try not to cry onto the keyboard...

• First to take to the stage is Kate, of Kate Takes 5 with a Beginners Guide to Blogging.  Say goodbye to your partner and family and stockpile baked beans.  Huge laughter as lots of bloggers relate to the bit about being tempted to take photos when your child injures themself, rather than going to their aid.  Last point in the guide, get ready to make lots of friends, we love that bit too Kate, and it's especially poignant today. 
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Nickie, from I Am Typecast, announces she will not be rebranding herself as Granny at 36.  Private Cybermummy 11 jokes aside, Nickie's post There Are Only So Many Perfect Heads in the World is very serious.  Nickie is bravely blogging a diary account of her daughter being diagnosed with cancer.  Baby Rachel was 14 months old, Nickie was 20.   I look round the room at 400 plus silent parent bloggers, so many hands to face, barely daring to breathe, as Nickie documents the events as they unfolded.  Such vivid descriptions of all the new words, situations and environments as they hit Nickie's 20 year old self.  Operation, biopsy, saline, growth, cancer. The agony of seeing your child in pain, the priceless gift of being told of Rachel's remission.  Nickie makes it to the end, and only then does the emotion catch up with her.  Well done Nickie for delivering such an emotional post.

• The Coffee Lady has such a beautiful lilting voice, she is such a natural storyteller.   Her post, A Call to Bad Behaviour expresses her desire for her daughter, who is disabled, to have the independence to be able to misbehave just as the Coffee Lady and her husband Mr Coffee did as children. I have had to come back later to do this post justice, on second reading I realise how many issues it raises about disability for society.
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• Next is Emily from Babyrambles sharing Sometimes I don't want to be a parent.  A beautifully written, and read, wish list for all mothers.  Impractical shoes, uninterrupted conversations, to read an entire book, not having to care.  So many unfulfilled wishes which all the parents is the room can relate to.  We are all nodding along wistfully Emily.
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• Fi Star Stone from Childcare is Fun! is reading her blog Telling the Real Story of My Twitter Birth, a response to newspaper coverage of Fi tweeting her son's birth.  Fi's followers were positive about her tweeting details of her homebirth, but when the wider media picked up on the story many sources made false assumptions about Fi, and her reasons for tweeting.   Great to hear Fi answering back, putting the record straight, and correcting a huge catalogue of misreporting.  I can't believe this was written just a week after giving birth.  Such a coherent, witty blog post.  

Jane,  Northern Mum is taking to the stage with On the Brink of Sanity.  Jane's unique voice is full of imagery and metaphor, she fearlessly documents living with children.  This tale includes ninjas, unfinished manicures, bowling balls and blackberries on toast.  Jane, you are definitely not alone, we are all nodding along with you.

Emily from More Than Just A Mother is now debating How on Earth Does One Dispose of a Vibrator?  I am not going to spoil it by revealing Emily's suggestions here.  I will just tell you Emily has a fabulous imagination, there are lots of sniggers, check this post out. 

Pippa from A Mother’s Ramblings shares A Blog Post Without a Point.  Pippa takes us on a moving journey, starting with her blog, what she wants for her children, what she remembers of her childhood.  Swings in the park, Christmas, theme parks.  All the things that families do.  Quality time.  Then following a random meeting on a train, Pippa is reminded of the importance of holding your family close.  Lovely reminder that posts can be journeys too.  This one very much makes a point Pippa!

Hannah from Muddling Along Mummy is sharing Can the Pregnancy Police Please Piss Off.  A beautifully crafted piece of rhetoric about the way society increasingly polices the pregnant woman. Hannah is delivering it with the gusto a post like this needs.  If you are pregnant, or have ever been, or are thinking about it, this is an essential read.

Catherine from Baby Genie is reading I was Saved by a Raisin, a tender and humorous post documenting those shakey, emotional, uncertain days of early motherhood.  Those subtle changes in behaviour, those little obsessions that set in.  Like finding the bits of broken toys or earring backs and frantic cleaning.  Catherine's journey into the realms of motherhood induced OCD rounds off with sound advice on where our priorities should be as parents, this is a story about learning to let go, learning how to be the mother you want to be and living in the moment.

Finally, Jacqui from Mummy’s Little Monkey is sharing Oh S**t, on the perils of what happens when children investigate their poo-ey nappies.  This is a horror poo story, every parent has one.  But no-one tells it quite as well as Jacqui.  Laughs all round, a brilliant finish to the Keynote.

That's it from them, and that's it from me.  Didn't they do well?  Happy Reading.  What struck a chord with you?