My name is Izzy and I’m a stepmom…
Lately, I’ve noticed some very heartfelt questions and universal stepmom concerns in the whole milk forum. I am happy to see women opening up and asking for guidance from their step-sisters. And since I invited you to come in and bare yourself, I want to respect your courage and give you what you need. In my opinion, a hand reaching out is a hand that wants to be held.
But, I can’t do it alone.
When I started Stepmother’s Milk, I thought the forum would become a natural place for other stepmoms to share their stories and exchange ideas and advice, but it’s been relatively quiet. Ironically, the forum gets more traffic on my site than anywhere else (hundreds of visitors every day), but very few women leave comments.
A natural place for other stepmoms to share their stories…
I have wondered about this. What’s the hesitation? Is it poorly designed and difficult to access? Is the discussion too broad? Too narrow? Do you want more participation from me? A weekly topic to debate? (I’m more than happy to join any conversation, but I’m just one woman, a novice stepmom and certainly no expert).
However, I absolutely know that the women who frequent my site have wonderful insights to share because you all leave amazing comments to my daily posts. I’d love to generate a larger discussion in the forum and expand our stepmom community where we can relate more intimately, so I’m asking you: How do we make it better? What do you want from a forum? How can if be more useful?
If you haven’t visited there lately, I encourage you to stop by. No membership required. There are a few new voices calling out for some help. Perhaps collectively, we can provide some answers.
IR
Tags:advice, blog, stepmom forum, whole milk forum
A weekly topic might be really interesting.
A lot of times when I visit stepmom forums I feel flooded with overwhelming negative stories. I think the trick with forums is to keep them structured and moving in interesting directions — left to their own devices, they seem to get super negative. So mostly I stay away from them. Your forum doesn’t feel like that — I guess I just feel wary of the forums in general. But if you were there to moderate and guide the conversation a little more, that might be fun.
I too have noticed that many stepmom forums dwell on the negative and while, I hope to foster honesty, I think we can do that without getting super nasty. I’m hoping to create a space that allows women to come together and feel better about their situation, not worse!
I’m thrilled to see some voices in the forum appear in the last couple of days that I have not seen before. I hope other readers will follow suit.
I am thrilled to have stumbled upon this forum. I have been a stepmom for almost 6 years. In the beginning, I searched high and low for group that could share my concerns, frustrations and also provide insight, advice and encouragement. Hooray for stemmother’s milk! I will be a regular.
Is there an RSS feed for the forum posts, by any chance?
I would really enjoy a weekly topic. I really like that. I also like the idea that exists of being able to call out for support, or help, or just to be able to enter a thought into the void so that I can get it off my chest. I like the idea of finding other women that need help too. I have already met 2 women in UT where I live through other blogs. I appreciate their immediate friendship so much. This blog and forum does wonders for women like myself.
I just found the RSS feed. Terrific!
Jill found the RSS for the Forums, here’s where to look. At the bottom of each Forum/Topic is the familiar RSS icon with the words “TOPIC RSS”. Kinda hard to find but useful.
The Husband and SSM tech support guy.
And the master feed for all the topics looks like it is this one: http://stepmothersmilk.com/sf-forum?forum=2&xfeed=forum
It’s very useful! Thanks!
Greetings Ladies from Indy! Glad to have found the site- will be joining your ranks in 2 short weeks(can you say living my life with lists?!) with a wonderful 7 year old girl and her dad. I’m thinking of writing a kind of short keepsake letter to give her. Any feedback? Thanks- you folks rock!
Cat- welcome. I love the idea of the keepsake letter. Do share it with us if you’d like. And congrats two weeks early on your marriage and entry to stepmomhood.
Cheers
IR