July 16, 2011

Blogger Idol 2011... Week Three

So I have moved on to week four in Blogger Idol!  This weeks double elimination spared me the axe.  It was closer than I would have liked, but it just proves that every vote counts, so please continue to vote each week until I am gone, which hopefully won't be until the Finale.

This week we were asked to team up with another finalist and write a joint piece, an interview of sorts.  I was fortunate to team up with Mama Mash, another stay at home parent from Kansas City, you can read about her here.  She has quite a story and is a very clever writer.  The judges were pleased with the direction that we took, but they seemed less than thrilled about the lack of research it seemed we did on each other.  I actually read every single post she made, so the research was there.  As far as doing an interview based on your blog, thats boring.  If you wanted to find out about the blog, you could just read it.  The idea is to get a better understanding of the person, not the blog, something I believe that we did.

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John and Julie do the same job (stay-at-home parents), have the same hobby (blogging), hell, they even studied the same thing in college (journalism). This makes them both curious writers who are used to captaining the ship. Take a peek as the authors of Daddy’s in Charge? and Mamamash try to get a glimpse into what it’s like when the other parent is running the show.


Who does what?

Julie: What have you and your wife agreed upon as your job description?

John: My wife Jenn and I just had this conversation last week, and it really has become an issue in our house. There are times when all of it just gets too overwhelming and things spiral out of control. My house is a mess, my refrigerator is bare, and my kids don't have matching socks. I like to think that as long as the kids are alive, I have been doing my job. 

As far as my wife is concerned it needs to be much more than that though, I need to take a more active role in their development and wellbeing. I have my normal duties like cooking, cleaning, and laundry like any stay at home parent, although I still struggle with my wife's laundry from time to time. There are just too many different settings to worry about. Mine all goes in one load, one temperature. Hers, I actually have to read the label. It sucks.  

Julie: I think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes into play here. If my refrigerator were empty, my husband wouldn’t care if the house were a mess or if the laundry weren’t done. He’d follow me around whimpering “Food. Food. Fooooood.” 

John: So what’s the grocery-shopping strategy. Coupons? 

Julie: My husband absolutely abhors shopping unless it involves electronics or liquor, so I do the majority of our food shopping. I've never shopped with coupons until this year when I decided it would be fun to try this new "extreme couponing" thing. Hubs was tolerant of my new hobby until he went looking for a wrench and was surprised by a year's supply of Playtex Sport nestled among his tools. 

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy all the work it required, although I now have enough toothpaste to survive a shortage in the event of the zombie apocalypse. Now that things are back to a much more normal scale, I poke around in the fridge to see what we need, quiz the man of the house as to his current menu requests, make a list that I then forget on the table, and enjoy a couple of hours to myself at the market.


Cooking, Cleaning, Keeping calm

Julie:  Honey I'm home.  What's for dinner?




















Routine, Routine, Routine


Julie: It's naptime, what are you doing?















Judges Comments:


"I liked the conversational tone, and how even though one of you would ask the question, often you would both answer it in your discussion back and forth.

What I didn't get a feel for though, is whether or not you did any "research" on each other before you conducted the interview. Your blogs weren't mentioned at all, but then again you are very similar to each other in some ways and so it could be assumed that you were more curious about each other's typical day than you were about each other's blog. You didn't really have to explain your job to each other, because you both do the same thing (if that makes any sense at all).

All in all, I think it was well thought out and well written. Nice work!"


Amy, from Non-Stop Mom 


"I really liked this. You guys picked a great way to go about it, with the whole 'he does, she does' thing. I can honestly say I don't ever think I would have thought of that. It was very clever, and I liked that you guys had an overall topic and then discussed things within that topic. It made it seem very put together and organized, and very natural. "




"I liked that this had a conversational flow and that you broke it down into categories. I also like how, in one way or another, you each answered the questions. I think that the questions gave a great insight into each others lives/routines and, in turn, gave us a good perspective of what it's like to parent from the other side.

I think it flowed well, was put together nicely, and seemed very natural."


Kim, from Mamas Monologues 


"I really like this one. The discussion style was easy to read and the topics flowed easily, and it was interesting to see how a stay at home dad deals with things different from a stay at home mom. I can also so glimpses of your blog styles and personality, which is great.

Having a theme (stay at home parents in this case) really helps tighten things up, and you guys did a great job."


Alison, from Mama Wants This! 



"I also liked the conversational tone and you do get to know each other better. I have to agree with Non-Stop Mom when she says that you do not get the picture that you did a lot of background research, but the interviews works. I loved the part about extreme coupon shopping for a zombie apocalypse - nice! Nice blend of both humor and seriousness. Good job!"
Chris, from Dad of Divas


John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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