I am a black mommy blogger. When did this happen?

I have been an intermittent blogger for about 12 years.

I have created (and deleted) blogs that run the gamut: my hair, fashion, sex & relationships, my life here in Toronto and while living in Montreal, random, pictures of interest (before Pinterest), my daily commute and work. However, I’ve never identified as a “black blogger,” where my race/ethnicity was paramount to my online writings. Sure, there were a few culturally-relevant or race-related rants, but my blackness in general was only a small part of having a blog.

I have followed bloggers whose race and experiences were varied and vast; I tend toward writers whose style and tone (and penchant for grammatical correctness) match my own. I also liked to read about travels and day-to-day experiences that were relatable, or aspirational. Ironically, I rarely followed mommy bloggers, as I was a childless singleton with zero interest in how these ladies balanced the demands of parenthood with daily life.

Today, I have to admit – while eating a steaming pile of crow – that the bulk of the blogs I read are about pregnancy, parenthood, Down Syndrome or food. I have come across a plethora of good blogs and great writers, and I know I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of them. As the soon-so-be black parent of a bi-racial child with special needs, I think it would be helpful to find more blogs from parents of colour who are dealing with some (or all of the challenges) I am about to face.

But why would race matter in this instance, you might ask?

It’s amazing the things people have said to me about my mixed-race baby-to-be (to be covered in another post). I’m aware that a lot of is well-intentioned and supposed to be complimentary or flattering, but the comments can be downright offensive and espouses outdated thoughts and ideologies about race. Truthfully, I’m often left gobsmacked, à la dafuq dis person just say to me…?

Culturally speaking, Down Syndrome is not something that I find coloured/ethnic folk deal with very well. And I can’t say for sure that I know/have ever personally known a parent of colour/child affected by Trisomy 21. I would love to read the musings of another parent in a similar situation, just to see how they cope.

The closest I’ve found to T21 bloggers of colour are: a latino mommy – whose despair at having a child with Down Syndrome is completely opposite my eagerness to meet, love and enjoy my daughter, and a Christian Filippino/Korean couple whose son has DS. (I will also comment on the Christian/DS aspect in a separate post).

Even just to find a special-needs (of any sort) mommy blogger of colour would be great. I split my time between writing this post and googling “black mommy bloggers + special needs” and as many variations as I could think of. So far, I’ve found Sailing Autistic Seas, but after about 2+ hours of searching, hers is the only one I have come across – and it was via the Blogging While Brown website.

I started this blog as a way to chronicle the progress of my pregnancy, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up once Peanut is here and growing. The blogiverse needs more blogs from special-needs mommies of colour.

Like me! 😀