{"id":21179,"date":"2014-08-14T16:17:52","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T20:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=21179"},"modified":"2014-09-11T14:27:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T18:27:03","slug":"alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna Kate Baer’s blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

One late night in early August, Kate Baer \u201907 received the email that every writer hopes for. This one was from an editor at the Huffington Post<\/a>, asking for permission to share Baer\u2019s recent blog post, \u201cWhen You Are Tightly Wound<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attention from one of the most heavily trafficked blog curations on the web wasn\u2019t totally unexpected. Baer\u2019s July 9 post about the stresses of balancing career and parenthood had gone viral, with more than a million hits on her blog, www.kbaer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But still, at a time when Baer says she was struggling, more than she usually does, to be patient with her professional goals and the fact that she wasn\u2019t achieving them due to \u201ctrying to get a toddler to poop and an infant to sleep,\u201d well\u2026here, at last, was an email affirming that the former English major and aspiring memoirist was, indeed, moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat and stared at the screen, trying to figure out how to write back in all capital letters, \u2018OBVIOUSLY, YES, YOU ARE MAKING MY LIFE,\u2019 without sounding desperate,\u201d Baer remembered.<\/p>\n

Then the mother of two, tired and tightly wound herself, didn\u2019t fall asleep for several hours.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly that feeling she describes in the post, an anti-paean to motherhood that begins, \u201cIt is the unwashed dishes. The dirty kitchen sink. The four baskets of clean laundry being scattered over the crumb flavored carpet by a drunk toddler\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

So stressed she cannot sleep or find the energy to think, let alone to write, Baer finds solace in the multitudes of other mothers facing the same challenges.<\/p>\n

We shame ourselves into thinking we\u2019re the only ones who are overwhelmed, who cry in the bathroom, who sit in the grocery store parking lot as a \u2018vacation.\u2019\u2026 I see you\u2026We are in this together.<\/strong> You and me and the 42-year-old mother at the library who has <\/em>finally<\/span> had that baby after twelve years of trying but still feels tightly wound at the end of the day.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post eventually garnered more than 216,000 likes and 15,000 shares on Facebook. The comments from her readers equaled hers in honesty. One mother wrote that she was sitting in her car in the driveway, reading Baer\u2019s words and sobbing. Another asked, \u201cAre you living in my house?\u201d Many older mothers shared both joy at being parents, but guilt at wanting to be free from responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think parents want their feelings validated,\u201d Baer said, reflecting about her post from her home in Pennsylvania which she shares with husband, J. Austin Baer \u201906, son Waylon, 3, and daughter Eva, 8 months. \u201cThere’s a lot of glorification of \u2018doing it all\u2019 despite what everyone knows is the truth, that we can’t do it all. There is also a loss of community in many circles that has left a pretty deep void and it is always a relief to know we’re in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this together\u201d are three important words for Baer, who first started blogging (and graciously answering every reader\u2019s comments, until recently) in 2011 with a \u201cmommy blog\u201d called Motley Mama. Thirty weeks pregnant, she had just been let go from her job at a bankrupt non-profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I did what any other millennial girl with an English major<\/a> would do,\u201d she writes in a post<\/a> celebrating her three-year anniversary. \u201cI started a blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMotley Mama\u201d provided the stay-at-home mom with a reason to practice her craft. When Baer felt like she\u2019d outgrown its title and format, she created the current forum, where she writes about the highs and lows of parenting, from trimester tips (\u201cHow to Dress a Large Mammal,\u201d \u201cHow to Eat Your Weight in Sandwiches\u201d) to bonding with a second child, postpartum depression, potty training, and television for kids.<\/p>\n

But she makes regular and humorous observations about life with a perpetual student (her husband is in his fourth year of medical school), books, writing, holidays, swearing, church and technology.<\/p>\n

Baer says her recent success on Huffington Post briefly threw her off balance: she didn\u2019t write for two weeks after the \u201cTightly Wound\u201d post went viral, \u201cparalyzed\u201d by the pressure and fearful that her \u201ctiny success\u201d was a fluke.<\/p>\n

Yet her first post back, about her experience with daughter Eva called \u201cLetting Go of Breastfeeding<\/a>,\u201d was picked up by Huff Post Parents. She is now a contributing writer.<\/p>\n

With her readership now blossoming to 30,000 hits a day, Baer is realistic about her sudden notoriety. She still hasn\u2019t made a penny from her three-year-journey into the blogosphere, though she\u2019s now selling ad space on her website.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my goal was to make any money writing, I would have surely given up by now,\u201d she said. \u201cThe amount of time, effort, and physical turmoil it takes me to write a sentence would never be worth a paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on long-term goals, Baer says she\u2019s bound and determined to publish \u201cone measly book, so I can die an author.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, there\u2019s manna to sustain her: the virtual fistbump<\/a> she gives\u2014and gets\u2014from her growing community of readers \u201cin this together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One late night in early August, Kate Baer \u201907 received the email that every writer hopes for. This one was from an editor at the Huffington Post, asking for permission ... read more about Alumna Kate Baer’s blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":21183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,356],"tags":[13819,15065],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-21179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-language-and-literature","tag-austin-baer","tag-huffington-post"],"yoast_head":"\nAlumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One late night in early August, Kate Baer \u201907 received the email that every writer hopes for. This one was from an editor at the Huffington Post, asking for permission\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-14T20:17:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-11T18:27:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"5184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/\",\"name\":\"Alumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-14T20:17:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-11T18:27:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg\",\"width\":5184,\"height\":3456},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Alumna Kate Baer’s blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Alumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Alumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News","og_description":"One late night in early August, Kate Baer \u201907 received the email that every writer hopes for. This one was from an editor at the Huffington Post, asking for permission","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2014-08-14T20:17:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-11T18:27:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":5184,"height":3456,"url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/","name":"Alumna Kate Baer's blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-14T20:17:52+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-11T18:27:03+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/08\/KateBaer.jpg","width":5184,"height":3456},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumna-kate-baers-blog-on-motherhood-goes-viral-garnering-216000-likes-on-facebook\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Alumna Kate Baer’s blog on motherhood goes viral, garnering 216,000 likes on Facebook"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21179"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21195,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21179\/revisions\/21195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21179"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=21179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}