Kid's Blogs

Technorati is tracking over 4 million weblogs. I wonder how many of them are kids blogs. I would bet its way more than 50%.

As I’ve starting navigating the world of Xanga and Live Journal, its been eye opening. Many more kids are blogging than their parents.

It turns out my niece has been blogging for as long as I have. I didn’t know that. But I’ve been reading her blog since I found out last week and its great to be able to keep track of her life that way.

And my girls are blogging now. Emily seems more committed than Jessica, but we’ll see if it continues that way. I read their blogs too.

I also comment on all of these blogs.

My brother told me he wonders if its a good idea to do that. Does it hold the kids back when they know their parents are reading? He’s got a really good point there. The last thing I want to do is hold my kids back.

Jerry’s daugther won’t let him read her blog any more. She moved over to Live Journal and put up a password. I think that’s her perogative and if my girls want to do that, it would be OK with me.

But I’d miss the ability to find out what they are thinking. Take Emily’s trip to Greenkill this week. When I asked how it was, I got back “it was OK”. I asked a few more questions, but that was all I was going to get.

Then she blogged the whole trip and I got to find out what she did and what she liked and what she didn’t. That’s what I wanted and through her blog I got it.

Then there’s the issue of linking to the blogs. Jerry linked to Emma’s but then she moved. Jeff links to his son’s. Given all the nuts who read Jeff’s blog and slam him daily in the comments section, I’d have a tough time doing that. I’ve chosen to avoid linking to Julia, Emily, and Jessica’s blogs. I think that’s best for now.

I suspect there are lot of parents out there in a similar situation, so if you have any ideas, comments, or thoughts about this issue, I’d love to hear them.