Mom Tweets

I follow a lot of different people on Twitter. (If you don't know what Twitter is, you may want to read this before going any further). I read posts from different types of people from different worlds that interest me - interactive, marketing, business, celebrity and parenting are some of my favorite topics.

We Twitterers are still in the minority. It's become a very popular tool for many "web geeks" out there, but it's definitely not mainstream. I even had a discussion at work today on whether or not Twitter is valuable - and I work with web geeks! What draws me to Twitter (or Facebook for that matter) are the connections. We all know how Facebook is connecting people all the time & helping us all find those long-lost boyfriends. Twitter is similar, but it allows me to find new people and create new connections.

I follow a very smart and talented woman named Ms. Rezai (http://twitter.com/ms_rezai). She lives here in Minneapolis and also works with web geeks, but we have never met in person. I started following her based on a recommendation. Her company has done work for my old company, I worked with her boss years and years ago, and we share many friends. The truth is that the Mpls interactive community is really quite small - rarely does anyone get past 2 degrees of separation. Ms. Rezai has a new baby and a 5 year old. So as you can see - web, kids - we have a few things in common.

Last week Ms. Rezai posted, "?s I am being asked: 'What if the world was all monkeys? What if the world was made of chocolate?' Can I go back to work? I know more there" My first reading of this made me laugh out loud (her 5 yr. old comes up with some great comments!). A few days later I went back to find the post and mark it as a "favorite" so that I could easily find it again. Today I quoted this post while discussing working moms. I've always thought being a stay-at-home mom would be the hardest job in the world. I know I'm just not cut out for it. This short snippet from another mom's life captured an emotion I feel quite often. And it did so in less than 140 characters!

These two separate conversations today pulled it into focus for me. This is why I tweet. This is why I check Facebook regularly. This is why I love social media. Reading this thought from another mom not only made me laugh, it validated my working-mom feelings which, let's just admit, can include a whole lot of guilt. I'll meet Ms. Rezai in person eventually I am sure, but just knowing she - and many moms like her - are out there makes me feel good. I like knowing they are just a few clicks away.