Last Chance The personal blog of Kiara Gilbert

Stay/Work at Home Parents

Article © Kiara Joy Gilbert, 2008.

For the first two years of my daughter's life, I was a stay at home mom - and I got a lot of flack for it. Now I'm a work at home mom, and I'm still getting flack from people. A lot of people believe that if you don't work at all or outside the home, you don't have a 'real' job and you don't deserve your kids. I was told I didn't deserve my daughter, because I was a stay at home mom and my mother was supporting me. To me, being supported by my mother so I could have those years with my daughter is no different then if it was a husband supporting me so I could stay home.

Abortion

Before I get started: if you make a comment on this article, remember this: "if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all" - Thumper, Bambi. If you are going to flame me, or anyone else who has different views then you, I will delete the comment. This is my opinion, and yes, you are entitled to your own opinion - but that doesn't mean I will take a bad attitude from someone, or allow someone to cause drama with another commenter. You've been warned. Article © Kiara Joy Gilbert, 2008-2009.

In a lot of circles, abortion is a touchy subject. Bringing up abortion can be a lot like setting off a bomb. Everyone has an opinion. Here's mine.

I don't believe abortion should be made illegal. If a woman gets raped, and ends up pregnant, should she be made to go through the ordeal of pregnancy when she's already emotionally screwed up? Being raped is bad enough, but to have to go through nine months of pregnancy on top of it... that's not a decision people should be allowed to make for others. True, she could give the baby up for adoption or keep it; but isn't forcing an unwilling woman to keep her baby that was conceived by rape just another way to punish her for the act that brought the baby into the world? Not many women want the living reminder of their personal tragedy, even if it's only for nine months.

Blogging With Writer’s Block

Here's the first article in my 30 Days in 30 Days challenge. :) Remember how I said I was having writer's block? Well, this is what came of it. This article is © Kiara Joy Gilbert, 2008-2009 and may not be re-published without her approval.

Writer’s block. Everyone gets it at some point. While it is annoying, there are things you can do to help yourself get past it.

• Talk about something personal. Tell a funny story about something you or your kids have done recently. Talk about a movie you’ve recently seen, or a new restaurant you’ve been to. This also has the added benefit of making the reader feel like they are connecting with you on a more personal level.
• Go over some of your very first blog entries. Then re-write them to make them fresh and new, and possibly better then before. Add new ideas, thoughts and links to give it a new life.
• Research! Research a topic you’re interested in, but don’t know much about – then talk about your research experience in a post!
• Remember that you don’t have to post an entry as soon as you write it. Save them as Drafts and then publish them during those periods of writer’s block. This way, you are still submitting content, but there’s not a lull while you get past the writer’s block.
• Search the web for inspiration. Visit message boards, social networking sites, article directories and other blogs (to give just a few examples). When you come up with an idea, run with it. Challenge yourself to write an entry on that topic.
• How to’s aren’t just for high school speech classes. What do you do for a living? What’s one of your hobbies? Blog about it! Teach someone how to create a scrapbook layout, or how to add their website to a site engine. Who cares if it’s been done a thousand different times? The sooner you are out of the writer’s block, the sooner you can try more original ideas.
• Write a review on a product you or a loved one has tried recently. They don’t have to be long, but it’ll help the creative juices to flow.
• Make a trivia post! Make a list of random facts about your state, your country, or whatever else strikes your fancy.
• Ahead of time, write up a list of topics to blog about. When you are in a writer’s block, pull out the list and write an entry on it. I have my own topic list, and I also list different websites for each article – this way I don’t have to go searching for information when I want to write on one of the topics. It saves time, and when I’m in anxious to start writing, it really helps me concentrate more on the writing itself. I also have another list, in which I keep back-up topics – ones I’m vaguely interested in, but not really. Those are sometimes not used at all, but sometimes I come up with a good slant for one of those ideas when I’m in a writer’s block.
• If none of these ideas work, take a break! Go read a book, play with the kids or take a walk. Sometimes, when I can’t get out of a writer’s or designer’s block, just leaving it alone for a few hours makes me come back to the computer full of ideas. Just remember to take a notebook and pencil with you, for those flashes of inspiration!