I use the internet, a lot, more now than at any time in my life. I love Facebook and Twitter, I use forums a lot. I think this increase in my usage coincides with what has been one of the loneliest and most socially isolating periods of my life, as well as one of the happiest.
I do attend baby groups and activities, but most of these are for babies under 1, once babies turn 1 parents tend to return to work, and their children go to nursery. Baby groups only run once a week, and usually only for 90 minutes. The rest of the time, I am with Joseph, and at 17 months, whilst a lot of fun, still sleeps a lot and his conversation leaves a little to be desired at this stage!
I love to spend time talking to other mummies on line, and keeping up with the news. I enjoy hearing about the minutae of other peoples' lives and what people are thinking and getting up to.
But I have been considering of late, how I can better utilise my time. My husband and I have started fostering training and there is a lot of work to do to build our portfolio of evidence to take before the fostering panel. Christmas is coming, and money is tight, which means I will make a lot of presents rather than buy. And then there is the small matter of income generation, could my time be spent making things, offering my services to businesses, or generating an income rather than frittering it away on line?
I miss the hubbub of work. I miss the walks around the Quays at lunchtime with my friends. I miss chats by the coffee machine. My work involved a lot of interaction over the phone, and I find being at home quite lonely in comparison.
Also once we start fostering we need to consider how much information we give about our day to day lives online, and also we need to set a good example which means not spending all my time on line messing about, and lets face it, a lot of it is just messing about rather than a good use of time.
Would I miss it? Would the online world miss me? Or will I be a better person for getting a bit more of a life offline?
