Saturday, 5 December 2020

My 10th Year Blogging Anniversary

When I got pregnant and became a mother at 26 years old, I was the only one my age who was. With no one to advise me on motherhood, I started reading books and blogs religiously, learning everything I can about taking care of a baby. 

The first 6 months flew by in a blur and when I looked back, I could hardly remember what happened. It was then that I felt God speaking to me to start a blog. He knows that I loved to pen down my thoughts (I've been doing it since Secondary 1 and still have my diaries 😄) so a blog is a great way to document my motherhood journey. It was and still is the toughest but most rewarding job I've ever done! 😄

I called my blog MadPsychMum: Mad, my nickname since I was little, Psych because I am a psychologist and Mum because that's my new identity and what I will be mainly writing about in this blog. 

I designed my very first blog header myself and chose the theme 'University of Motherhood' as I was still in graduate school at NUS when I became a mum and difficult as graduate school was, I felt that I had studied harder for the motherhood 'exam'. It is also an exam that I will keep taking forever! 

Drew the pregnant figure under the tree myself and edited the header using simple 'Paint' tool 😂

My first ever post was shared on 5 Dec 2010, which lists the reasons why I decided to start a blog. Ten years later, I'm still blogging for the very same reason: to document the precious memories for my kids so that we can all reminisce about them when they are all grown up! 

My blog header evolved into this Fuschia pink background, my favourite colour! 

As I wrote about motherhood and things that I liked, I also started writing about my travels. My super detailed blog posts on our trip to Taipei in 2011 was the first to give me a reputation as a travel parent blogger who could provide fellow parents with very detailed itineraries that they could use for their trips. 

I really, really love travelling and have travelled to so many countries and meticulously documented all of them because I love to share the research I have done to put my itineraries together (most of them from scratch!). I have gotten so many emails from readers who told me that they just printed and followed my itinerary and had a really enjoyable, carefree trip! That really kept me motivated to keep writing, even in this pandemic, with the hopes that one day the posts will be helpful. 

Even if not, the posts remind me of the goodness of God! I am well aware that every trip is a blessing and I will never take any of them for granted! 

I changed the theme of my blog to 'University of Motherhood and Travel' since I was blogging about my travels so often! 

Other than travels, I'm also most known for my nursing room review, which (again) meticulously documents many of the nursing rooms that I have visited

When I first started blogging 10 years ago, there was no page as comprehensive as mine. This list of nursing rooms started out as a physical list in my notebook (I can never remember the locations of all the nursing rooms!), which later became a page in my blog because it was simply easier to refer to! 

I've been very previleged to have appeared in the newspapers twice: on The New Paper in May 2011 and on The Straits Times in April 2013!

I was featured due to my nursing room review page! 😄

I was also a finalist of the Singapore Blog Awards for Best Parenting Blog!

Finally, even though my Fun in Singapore page may not be as comprehensive as other parent bloggers, I continue to update it because I love to have fun! I would like my kids to know that their mummy loves to bring them to play! People do tell me that the page was helpful to them, and that really encourages me! 

My greatest motivation for blogging is my kids, all 3 of them! 

Every time I read about kids who had lost their mums I feel so sad and wonder what it will be like if the kids had to grow up without having known me? I tell myself, at least with this blog, they will know who I am, what I love and what I believe in. 

Or who knows, one day I might get dementia and need this blog to remember all the amazing things I had forgotten.

For these reasons, I will continue to blog! If you have been reading my blog, whether as a long time follower since 2010 or a new reader, I want to thank you sincerely for reading my blog! Your support has kept me going for 10 years! 😊
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