As I walked at Cahoon Hollow Beach yesterday evening, I wondered whether any of the women around the bonfires were "Mommy bloggers."
One of the hot topics at the Blog-Her conference in Chicago this past weekend was blog-ola, whether it is ethical to receive goods in exchange for favorable reviews. It seems many Mommy bloggers receive such offers. These women have formed a tight-knit community whose purpose is the sharing of information on life during and after pregnancy. How I would have loved to have had such a resource when I lived in Paris 40 years ago! (Here in Wellfleet, no one offers free dinners or free tickets or free anything in exchange for mention in this very local blog, not even a measly free oyster or seconds Beachcomber T-shirt.) 
According to NPR, “More than 1,500 people attended the conference, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of women who blog.” I really enjoy reading some of these Mommy blogs, like Flotsam, Breed ‘Em and Weep, or Tumble Dry. How wonderful these young writers can express themselves online while putting heart and soul into raising children! On this topic the deep inkwell of emotion never seems to run dry. 
The writing is so fresh it seems as if the bloggers hit motherhood straight out of some course in creative writing. There are not many folks blogging about life on Cape Cod. The Cape Cod Times presents blog “chowder,” newsy blogs they choose for reasons unknown to anyone but the editor. Actually, the common theme is “issues” related to Cape Cod. The problem is the mix includes newspaper articles, which, in my mind, should be banned from any blogging category that hopes to be taken seriously. So far I have not found a Cape blog worth reading for the writing, with the exception of Elspeth Pearson’s Diary of a Locavore, but I would love your suggestions ... NOON UPDATE: The FTC is considering rules to regulate blog-ola. Read about it here.
