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| Terry - aka @mamabennie |
One of the people I follow on Twitter is @mamabennie. Her real name is Terry and she is a stay at home mother of two young girls living in Archbald, PA. Terry is not your typical suburban mom, as you can see from the photo of her in pink hair. She blogs at randommommabrain where her background is a colorful splash of paint droplets mixed with skulls and crossbones. In her blog and her twitter feed, Terry is very forthright about the challenges of being a stay at home mom. She is dedicated to using cloth diapers and living frugally. One of her fascinating blog posts calculated the long term savings of using cloth diapers. On Mother’s Day she sent a series of tweets lamenting that her husband bought her a Mother’s day card while she sat in the car with the kids. In her bio, she writes she is “the little bit rock n’ roll half of the relationship.” She drives a truck, listens to rock and plays the saxophone. I wanted to learn more about Terry, and she agreed to an interview.
Interviewer: Can you tell me about why you started blogging and using Twitter and how it’s become a part of your life?
Terry: Well, I started blogging because I needed an outlet for my busy brain. There are always thoughts, ideas, stories, thinks I like and so many things always running through it. Sometimes I actually loose my thoughts before I get to write them down. It happens to the best of us, I just let it flow when I get the time. As for Twitter, I started using it as a connection to the outside world. Where I live, the babywearing/breastfeeding/cloth diaper-using parents are very rare. They don't even sell cloth diapers where I live. I needed to talk to people that understood me. When I started Twitter, we didn't use cloth at the time. Elsa (The first born) was just barely turning one, and we had been having a persistent horrible rash with blisters. The doctor was in denial that it was a reaction to disposables of course. I was at my wits end, and Twitter was my gateway to learning my options. I found so so many wonderful cloth diaper moms and companies that helped me out. The #clothdiapers chats on Twitter (Mondays at 9pm eastern), were the most helpful thing ever. I have made a lot of new friends and connections through the blogging/Twitter community.
Interviewer: So did the cloth diapers help Elsa’s rash?
Terry: O yes, it went away shortly after we switched. It was the best decision we ever made. We also have saved a ton of money considering at one time we had two kids in cloth. Dixie actually has the same allergy. We found that out when we went on a vacation without washer/dryer access. It was rough. I don't care what we have to do, we will never be using disposables again.
Interviewer: So you are the rock 'n roll side of the family. Would you name your favorite bands? Do your girls rock out with you now?
Terry: O boy, I have a ton of favorites. Rammstein, Green Day, Korn, Blink-182, Nirvana, Rob Zombie...the list really does go on. My girls do rock out with me, within reason of course. I try to keep the extreme potty language to a minimum.
Interviewer: Tell me about Archbald, PA. It sounds as though it's a pretty small town?
Terry: It is actually a fairly decent sized borough, but it is still considered suburban. We are about 10 miles from the city of Scranton, so not too far from the hub of everything around here. We moved to the outskirts for the lower crime rate and nicer people. It is better to raise children here. My husband and I were born and raised in Scranton, and it has unfortunately gone downhill a lot. Thankfully we lucked out and found a place to rent in such a nice area. We moved here 3 days before our first daughter's due date. The day we moved in all of the neighbors came over and introduced themselves. We have actually become friends with quite a few of them. I guess it just seems like a small place because you don't find such nice communities anymore.
Interviewer: I see you have a review disclosure on your blog. How did you start reviewing products and what do you review?
Terry: Well, I started reviewing by just writing opinions about products that I already used. I think it is beneficial to let others know your experiences with products, whether they are good or bad. I do have some reviews that are not positive so I do not lie in my reviews. My first non-personal review, was before Halloween. A costume company asked me to review a costume for them. So, I picked a Winnie the Pooh costume for Elsa and the rest is history. Every once in a while I have a company contact me through the e-mail address on my blog and ask me if I would like to review their products. I have also gotten a few offers through Twitter. On about 2 occasions I had contacted companies with things that I wanted to try out, but usually I just go with the flow. I don't really have any specifics on what I review. It just has to be something interesting. I have reviewed cloth diapers, clothing items, headbands, computer apps, laundry detergent, lotion, food products and some other children's items. Anything that could appeal to family lifestyles are pretty much up my alley.
Interviewer: I’d like to ask about the Mother’s Day card rant. When I read the one tweet I thought it was funny, but then I read through the timeline and realized you were upset and I was really touched by the response of your Twitter friends. In your twitter profile, you posted you are “wife to an amazing man/mechanic/daddy,” and I think he just started a new job. Is your hubby on Twitter? And did he pick out a good card that day?
Terry: Well, yea he did just start his new job. He is back to being a mechanic now. I know he didn't mean to blow off Mother's Day, things have just been crazy around here. I was just feeling extremely underapreciated that day. He doesn't have "the Twitter"...he is stunted in the social media department. He knew I was hurt by the way I was acting, but he never saw what I said. If it weren't for my amazing Tweeps I would have been crying. As for the card he picked, it was a humorous card and he didn't even write a personal note in it. That was the first time EVER that had occurred. Hopefully our 5th Anniversary in July will be better.
