2011 Top 20 Blogmas Posts to Make You Feel

Don’t know what Blogmas is? Check out my original call for posts and my summary of this whole crazy Blogmas roll out this week.

If you’ve read my blog, you probably know I like to laugh and I like to have fun. When it comes to reading blogs, I still like to laugh but I also want something that makes me feel. The feeling can be sad, sympathetic, empathetic, inspired, elated, breathless, disgusted, angry, or any other powerful emotion. But the point is that the writing is good enough to draw me in and make me care.

You’ll find a wide range of posts here and some probably will evacuate your tear ducts. I think different posts speak to different people and I’m willing to bet you’ll find one here that really makes you feel.

1. Best Post About Raising a Daughter by Joanna from Growing Up in Oz

I’ve been following Joanna forever on Twitter and I’m not sure I’ve ever visited her blog. With a nomination from Brandy of mannlymama, I had reason to and I’m so glad I did. I’m in agreement with Brandy that this post is just perfect:

The box

2. Post Most Likely to Give You the Goosebumps in an Awesome, Freaky Kind of Way by Erin from A Parenting Production

I’ve known Erin personally for a few years now and I still learn something new about her every time I read her blog. When I first read about her losing her father at a young age, it touched me so deeply. But this post, brought it almost full circle and made me so happy for her:

A Precious Gift

3. Most Inspirational Post by The Drama Mama from The Scoop on Poop

That’s a big title for a post to carry but it was clearly how Marissa from 4 Little Monkeys felt about it. I can’t say that I blame her. It’s never easy to talk about attempted suicide especially when it’s your own. I found it to be a beautiful and inspiring post:

I Will Survive

4. Best Post to Make You Stop and Think About a Sitcom in a New Light by Jenn Marie from Are We Pregnant Yet?

I’m fortunate never to have given fertility a second thought. In fact, I’m probably the kind of person that makes those struggling with fertility a little nuts. But I’ve been around enough to know that this is something that burns deep in the soul. And this post about an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” simply took my breath away:

Being a Pole Vaulter

5. Best kids-give-us-hope Post by Amanda from Four Against Two

You know how kids have such simple logic that it makes adults wonder why we make everything so complex? This is a perfect example of how a multi-colored family is raising colorblind kids. So thankful that Jenna from Stop, Drop and Blog nominated this beautiful post:

Black Is Brown As White Is Peach

6. Best Bear-your-soul-to-the-world Kinda Post to Help You Heal by Maureen from Tatter Scoops

Maureen has had a lot of ups and downs in her recent life and she always seems to handle them with grace. But when she wrote about her the end of her marriage, I felt all the rollercoaster of emotions that she felt and I’m so glad she wrote about it:

And So I Face the Final Curtain

7. Best Bring a Tissue Because I’m Not My Mother, I Love Her Anyways and I’m Finally Okay with That Post by Laverne from Kindred Adventures

I always seem to meet people that have complex issues with their mother. Maybe it’s because I do too. The older I get the more accepting I am of how similar we are but I’ve also learned that becoming like her isn’t necessarily inevitable as Laverne points out:

Not My Mother’s Daughter

8. Best Babies Grow Up Too Fast Post by Jocelyn from ScooterMarie

Okay. This is the one. Maybe it was PMS. I don’t know. But this is the one that cracked me and made me shed a tear. Because maybe I’m a sap when it comes to my little baby boy. Just beautiful:

A mama in the darkness

9. Best Tell It Like It Is and the Truth Shall Set You Free Post by NaLonni from Southern Hit or Miss

This was not the post I was expecting, especially after you see the writing prompt that inspired this post. But I think after reading this, or I hope at least, NaLonni is free. Writing can definitely do that for you:

We Have to Take a Photo for Our Records

10. Best Coming Out of the Mental Health Closet Post by Deborah from The TRUTH about Motherhood

How brave do you have to be to not only come to terms with a mental health diagnosis but to openly write about it? That’s not the most emotional part of it. What got me is how Deborah revealed her self-described flaws and has moved forward with her life by not letting her diagnosis define her:

Exposed ~ I am not my diagnosis

11. Most Sh*t Happening in the Shortest Period of Time by Misty from The Family Math

Let’s put it out there. Misty wrote about breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. She wasn’t on any soapbox except her own as she shared her grueling story of having a less than expected newborn experience.

I deserve better than to be judged: On breastfeeding vs. formula

12.Best Post to Read While Wearing Waterproof Mascara by Laura from Laura’s Mommy Journal

Do you have kids? Have they gone off to kindergarten? This post probably describes exactly how I’ll be next year when I send my little boy off to school. Now excuse me whil I go have a good cry…

First day of kindergarten

13. Best Post to Make You Remember and Appreciate the Ups and Downs of Parenthood by Tricia from Raising Humans

If you have kids, you know they love you one minute and hate you the next. Sometimes as parents we feel the same way. Tricia reminds us that the highs always outweigh the lows:

Ups and downs

14. Best Post to Remind Us that Parents Can Leave Lifelong Scars by Jenn Marie from Blenifer uncorked

We have two chances at a good parent-child relationship. The first, we’re born into and unfortunately we don’t have much control over. The second is with our own children. This post is a good reminder of how parents impact their children in more ways than they realize:

My Big Gray Cloud

15. Most Controversial Post Topic That Did Not Cause Drama by Jennifer from Momma Made It Look Easy

There are a few topics you generally stay away from if you don’t want controversy: religion, politics, and racism. Jennifer went there. Only I expected her post to be about being on the receiving end of racism and was surprised to see it shift in the other direction. I appreciate her sharing how she chose to grow into her own beliefs:

Raised around racism

16. Best Post for Mamas Everywhere Who Secretly Long for a Life Like Little House on the Prairie (Minus the Typhoid Fever and All That Crap) by Lacy from living on love

This post was so different from a lot of posts out there. It reminded me of the brief reality show on PBS called “Frontier Life” where the simpler life almost seemed appealing. But not really:

Longing for Domesticity

17. Best Post Reminding Us That Dads Can Also Blog by Dwayne from Dwayne 360º

Dads write blogs too. Sometimes they’re funny and every so often they’re actually poignant and reflective. Dwayne beautifully captured his thoughts one morning:

Then Came the Morning

18. Best Post to Gently Remind Yourself That It’s Not Really All About You by Jennifer from Just Jennifer

I love it when I have a moment of clarity. And usually that moment is a simple one. Jennifer had one of those moments where she really listened to the quote “Be the change you want to see in the world”:

Change It

19. Best Let’s Feel Sorry For Ourselves Even Though Your Husband Was Doing You a Favor Post by Roses’s Daughter from My Life

Working mom guilt is just about the worst. But sometimes it’s not about feeling guilty. It’s about just plain feeling bad that you have to miss out on some of the things in your child’s life, even when it is all in the family:

Yesterday, I Cried

20. Best Real Life Moment that Touches the Heart by Vi from Confessions of a Vi3tBabe

We all know our kids will eventually turn on us. But nobody expects it when they are only six years old. Vi is fortunate enough to have her mother helping to care for her children but at what price?

My Daughter Doesn’t Like Me

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And there you have it. The 20 posts that made me feel something. I can be a tough reader and only one post made my eyes water but so many of these just drew out emotions in me, some good, some bad. But they all accomplished the goal of making me feel. I hope at least one of them does the same for you.

Looking for something to lighten the mood? If you missed it, yesterday I highlighted the 2011 Top 20 Posts to Bring Out the Funny.