If my parents ever read my blog, they'd be..eh, bored, but I can understand the "clear history" thing, I am anal about that at my parents house!

I blog anonymously for this very reason. My parents are a bit more internet saavy and you'd better believe that if they knew about my blog, I would have to hear about it FOREVER. I would be told to delete "offensive" entries and constantly critiqued. Fuck that shit.
Keep clearing out that cache. I understand completely.

Y just wouldn't be Y without all the Talk of Boink!

Yes, my family knows but only because my sister has a big mouth and told them. I don't really mind - I just censor myself and pretend they don't know...

Smiling... but what can I say? I don't want ANY of my family to find mine. It's just none of their business.

(*but it obviously is the rest of the worlds business right?) bah ha ha.

I'm a bit in-between. My parents know I blog, mom reads it, dad doesn't, except whatever bits mom reads aloud. A few beloved relatives read as well.

When I started it, I swore to myself that I wouldn't censor what I wrote or felt based on who might or might not be reading. I only sort-of succeed at that; I am still honest, but I do...tone down, I guess...the expression of things I think or feel. Meaning, I'm not as hostile and I don't use The Dreaded Eff Word as much as I'd actually like.

But the thing that got me in the most Trouble With a Capital T? It wasn't admitting that I have a foul mouth (sometimes) or that I've had The Sex or that I drink alcoholic beverages, sometimes to excess...those aforementioned beloved relatives took umbrage over my hometown.

I grew up in an eastern suburb of Atlanta, Georgia but as modern a metropolitan as Atlanta is (we even gots us a symphony, yo) that's as backward and redneck and backwoods as my hometown is. It reeks. Also, everybody knows everybody and they will SO rat you out to your folks. So on my blog I call this place "Cowshit Georgia" because that's how backwoods it is, and that's about all worthwhile that's ever come out of there, and that's how I feel about it.

This offended my blog-reading relatives, who were inexplicably more offended when I suggested that if theydidn't like what I wrote, they didn't have to keep reading...

I had an old blog and all of my friends and family knew about it. My mom would comment occassionally and when I'd talk to her on the phone, she'd bring up whatever it was I posted about. Then she shared it with my entire family - grandparents, distant aunts and uncles, cousins...how in hell am I supposed to complain about anyone if they all read it? I had to censor myself big time so my current blog is annonymous and I love it. I completely understand your pain.

My family found my blog because
1) I include my blog URL in my signature, and I forgot to delete it in an email to my uncle
2) I put up a tribute to my Grandpa on Veterans' Day, and linked to my Uncle's website
3) I use my real email address on it, which is Googlable.

Once I realized they were reading, I stopped writing completely :-P I've thought about going anonymous, but it seems like too much work.

Don't tell the parents. It will be the biggest mistake of your life. My family knows and it is a constant source of tension...

My parents know I have a blog and they used to read it, I'm not sure if they do now. I let a friend of mine "guest blog" and my father didn't like what he wrote so he called me to tell me.(it really wasn't that bad...just ramblings about lady-boys in Thailand) We had a huge argument because I said I didn't write for him and he had no right to censor me and if he didn't like it, he didn't have to read it. He actually told me not to put certain stuff on my "regular" blog...wtf? Stupid.

Unfortunately, we don't live in the same country so I had to have my sister defend me back home so my father would stop being a loser.

So yeah, even though I totally got mad about censorship, it now totally affects my writing and it annoys the hell out of me. My advice...don't tell your parents.

My parents? Heck, my wife doesn't know I blog.

(well really I don't blog)

I'm down with the devil water, though, straight up.

My parents know I blog but have no desire to read it - but, even if they did want to I'd never give them the addy.

Some of my siblings know about my blog and one, in particular, reads it and, for the most part, that's okay - unless I want to bitch about them and then I have to bite my tongue. :lol:

My mother probably knows about my blog, I don't know and I really don't care. She isn't gonna find it ever by googling my real name, or my kids names, or anyone else's names, though. So I'm safe, not that I'm hiding from her. There is nothing I say about her (like calling her the Evil One) on my blog that I wouldn't say to her face if I ever lay eyes on her face again, which I doubt. After all, it's been since 1980. :-)

My parents know I have a blog, but (thank God) don't know how to find it nor are they interested in finding it. Frankly, I wonder if they know exactly what a blog is.

There is something I'm hiding from them though. I, who was baptized and raised Catholic, have become a Baptist. I can't bear to tell them, even though I'm a grown, 31 year old woman. ACK.

My parents, they read not the English very well. Although my mom is getting the hang of Googling. Still, I don't think she'll ever read a blog in any language. And besides, all my juicy stuff is all friends-locked in my nice emo-LJ. My sister's caught on to a public post every once in a while, but that's okay.

Sometimes I really wish my family didn't know about it, especially my husband's family. There are times when I really feel like I need to write about stuff in a public forum but they all read it.

I come from a family of bloggers and we all read each other's stuff. It does make it difficult to bitch about family members, but I live with it. Honestly, I don't have much to bitch about. I have a pretty cool family. I just bitch about my spouse, my work, my life, etc. The parents, the siblings, the extended family....not so much.

my hub knows about it....and reads it sometimes. The only other person is my cousin. I would stop completely if anyone else in our family knew. Then I can't talk and bitch about them...I think a blog really is like a journal...and I ain't openin' mine up anytime soon for them to read. Its easier when it is public, I don't care if anyone else judges me! :) I am happy with my family not knowing EVERYTHING about my life!

The whole family knows about mine. DO NOT TELL YOUR PARENTS! Your whole writing style will change. I find I have to censor when a relative annoys the ever loving crap out of me. I'm starting to get a bit more honest about myself and our life, but still...I have to tread lightly to protect their sensibilities. The PPD wasn't covered at all the first time, to protect my aunt who always wanted kids but never got them, for example. Make sense? No. But there you have it.
Incidentally, devil water is awesome. :)

The majority of my family reads mine..because my oldest sister was all "do you read Abby's blog? No? Well here's the link..go check it out!" which I really wish she hadn't done. Not that I talk crap about my family or anything..but geeze..I feel so limited as to what I can talk about now without completely offending them all now.

My sister knows, but I gotta tell you every once in a while I wish she didn't! Parents, in-laws, and extended family are blissfully unaware and I'd like to keep it that way since, uh, I don't have much nice to say about them. If they ever find my blog then there will just be more tension, but seriously, I need an outlet, so screw 'em.

My family has no clue (hopefully). I'm not really planning on telling them either.

You shouldn't tell your parents, and my reasoning is selfish - I don't want your blog to change. I think telling them is unnecessary. They don't need to know every detail of your life. And, they'd hate it. So, it's best that they just don't know it's here.

My whole family knows about my blog, but main readers are my 82 year old dad and one of my sisters-in-law. My dad complains if I'm not blogging often enough. I hope to be able to get a Chumby for my mom, so she can read my blog. She's not what you would call internet savvy. She's refusing to learn, so a Chumby would work perfectly for her, after I got it all set up. Oh, and after they, uh, release them for sale.

Oh, and my dad does print out blog entries that he thinks my mom might want to read. She once complained about my language.

I agree, let's not tell the parentals. I'm with "thethinker" and, very selfishly, don't want your blog to change.

My family knows about my blog. I like for them to know what's going on in my life, but I don't tell them any of the important stuff, like The Snip (no one knows) or Teh Secks, nothin'.

My grandmother calls every time I mentioned weight or money and informs me that no one wants to hear about the things I obviously won't control.

Lots o love, ya know?

So don't tell your parents. Keep hiding, deleting cookies, the whole nine yards.

K?!

Ok, this is weird. I'm not FlippyO, but I posted what's posted? What's happening?!!?

Never mind.

Hi, I'm an idiot.

Thanks!

My family knew of my blog.... therefor I changed the URL about 40 times and tried that whole private thing... it caused problems for them to hear that I wasn't really ok sometimes and that my 3 year old sometimes says GD it! and that I really think things are ok that they don't. It caused problems and judgement that I didn't want.... so, I ultimately STOPPED blogging.

My parents ( my mother passed away 1/15/06 ) know how to use the computer and know how to google me..... my dad, even has a myspace page. lol....

Thankfully, my dad and stepmom have dial-up at their house --- dude, seriously, no cable company will provide service all the way out where they live THANK GOD --- and I'm careful to never mention my website or anything. I also hide my Flickr from them, just because some of my self portraits are not things I want my dad seeing.

My mom doesn't even know how to turn on a computer.

I know I've never really written anything BAD on my blog (have I? Right? Oh crap!) but still. It's just WEIRD.

My family knows. My mom reads my blog on a semi-regular basis, and every time she reminds my dad that I have a blog he seems surprised so I'm guessing that means he doesn't read it. I'm lucky to have a pretty good relationship with my parents. I don't really censor myself too much. Maybe just dial down the swearing a little but overall I really don't write about anything interesting enough to offend my parents anyways!

I understand completely. My parents were not freaky religious nuts, but there were just some things they didn't need to know. You know those things because when you think of telling them or them finding out it just makes you tired. My parents never knew I smoked or had sex with lots of strange men and some women too, because can you just imagine how tired you'd be after that speach.

None of my family knows about my blog. Not even my husband.

At first, I didn't know how well I was going to do with it and I didn't want him to see me being lame. Then...I got comfy with it and realized what a great outlet it was for me to release my anxieties. Anxieties that I don't want him to have to worry about. Things that I need to get out but it's not that big of a deal but it could seem that way to him.

And for the same reason, I don't want my parents or my sister to know about it. Because they are the source of a lot of my anxieties. And I just don't need my Mom seeing how much I hate my appearance and then her call me to tell me how pretty I am to make me feel better. I know she would mean well, but it would make me feel worse and then I'd have to quit the blog and then I'd have NO outlet.

So...the only people that know about my blog are the people I met through blogging. And I don't know what I would do without them...

My parents don't know I have a blog. My husband doesn't know I have a blog (hey he works nights). My husband saw me reading someone's blog and told me how stupid he thought they were and why the hell would anyone want to do that. So, yeah, I didn't tell him about mine.

I'm not worried about google since I don't use any real names. My blog is my own little world.

a handful of assorted friends know that i blog and a very small amount of them actually have the address and read it on occasion which bugs me sometimes because it causes me to censor a little. i'd rather be all anonymous all the time but i'm ok with it i guess. *shrug* i mean, they are my friends, so they already know i'm demented and all that and they love me anyways...

If my PARENTS found it though? or anyone in my FAMILY?? I'd TOTALLY close up shop and move to a new addy. T O T A L L Y.

My mom knows I'm on MySpace and blog and stuff like that, but she could never tear herself away from playing games on pogo.com long enough to read anything or look at anything. All my other relatives and stuff read everything, and I don't talk about things online that I wouldn't say in person just to keep myself from dealing with crap. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I had started out anonymously just so I could talk about people and not have them read it. hahaha

Y,

I don't think you are hiding persay from your parents, sometimes there are aspects of our lives that they do not need to know, especially if they would be offended and make your life really hard. There is nothing wrong with what you write and if they read your blog you would feel like you couldn't talk about things openly, and that would be a shame. Writing a blog is an outlet I know sometimes it makes me feel better just to get it out there, whether someone reads it or not. Both my parents know about my blog, and so far there really hasn't been anything I wouldn't want them to know (both are really open minded so its not too big of a deal) but there are times when I wish I could vent about them but can't because they would see it and I don't want to hurt their feelings and that is what you are doing, sparing them from getting offended, having their feelings hurt, or thinking you are doing something bad. Keep us laughing and keep deleting that browser history, we don't want to lose you.

Argh! Is there a way we the internet can prevent your mom from finding your blog? Don't change Y!

My parents read, my siblings read (well except my lame ass brother, lol), my in-laws read. Censor City! The funny thing is that when my dad is the first to comment on a post, no one else will comment. It's annoying.

Good luck house hunting!

NO WAY does my family know...I would DIE and after recent family events that I have vented about here....probably be disowned. I have 1 friend who reads ....

My family knows about mine, but that is only because my husband had to go and tell his family about it and then I felt extra guilty that his parents knew and mine didn't. I would love to be able to write things about my in-laws; like the time that they came to visit for our wedding and stayed with us (the newly weds) for SIX WEEKS in our two bedroom apartment. And yes, that includes the wedding night.

Unfortunately, my family knows of my blog. Every once in a while my sister or sister in law will bring up something I've written and I"ll cringe. They all knew about the 365Days thing - and after the millionth comment about me taking pictures of myself I just stopped doing it. I censor myself a lot on my blog about my family ... if my mother in law ever found the damn thing all hell would break loose.

Don't tell your parents. We live for the Talk of Boink and the fun times with bean dip and Devil Juice.

Damn near everybody I know is aware of the fact that I blog. That includes family, friends and co-workers past and present. I decided long ago that I would rather not try to hide from people because the stress of that would be maddening. There are things that I just will not put in writing on the internet for ANYONE.

That said, I think I am pretty open on my blog. My mom doesn't swear or approve of it but I drop the F-bomb on Kazoofus regularly. If she doesn't like it she shouldn't be reading. That's what I tell everyone I know that reads it. There are a million things to read on the internet -- don't read what I write if you don't like it or can't handle it.

If anyone I know is reading this and hasn't realized that I've come out of the blogging closet - please click here:

Maybe Baby: Constance and I are infertile, and I'm very likely skewering you in a public forum.

Enjoy!

My parents know about (and occasionally read) my blog, and yes it very much effects what I write. So does the fact that my boss reads my blog. Sometimes, I resent that I have to censor myself. Other times I think I'm glad that I do because if I can't say it in front of my parents or boss, I probably shouldn't be writing it down for the whole world to see!

My whole family knows about my blog and I use my real name and yes, there was a lot of self-sensoring going on because both my parents and my husband checked it daily. Just recently I started an anon blog and it is very freeing. I think I have 2 readers (people I told about it that I don't know in real life from my original blog) and I'm pretty sure they're the only ones that can link me to the new one. I say, KEEP IT A SECRET!

OMG! If anyone I know (besides the select few I've told about my blog) knew about my blog, they would have a total cow. I haven't even written anything major yet, but what's there, if certain people put 2 and 2 together, Dude, seriously. My mom. Ugh!

My mother knows about mine but she hasn't yet figured out how to use the internet. I know that she will eventually, and one of the first things she'll do is read it. I've already begun the process of changing names to "protect the innocent" (and not so innocent). My husband also knows about it and I really regret telling him about it because it prevents me from writing about shit he does to piss me off. He's way too sensitive about that kind of stuff. So in retrospect, I wish I didn't tell them because in many ways it forces me to censor myself, and if I'm censoring myself, what's the point?

Oh you know I'm not touching this one. My parents know, obviously. Kind of hard to miss when it is on the front page of the Washington Post for getting fired.
You don't owe it to them to tell them everything. For all we know, your mom has a blog. Which would rock, by the way.

Some of my family knows, but not my mom. It's not so much hiding (my site is pretty PG save for some swearing) but the only people in said family that read it are my 2 sisters, and my aunt. Occassionally a cousin or my dad/stepma (at my sister's proding).

None of my family members knew about the blog when I did it, except my brother. Mostly because I would have felt so limited if I knew they were reading. I couldn't bitch about Lance without my mom calling asking if we were getting a divorce. I couldn't bitch about being a SAHM without my sister calling me to tell me I'm lame because its so much harder working, like her. My dad would correct my spelling and grammer, and worse, offer "suggestions" on things I might like to write about, or how to increase my traffic. ARGH. If you have to hide from your parents to be honest, then hide from them! I'm all for it!

My blog/journal is blocked from google searches for this very reason. I would censor everything if my family or friends read. I have let a few people in by choice though.

Funny, I was just composing an email to come out of the closet and share my blog with a bunch of friends. It has taken me a long time to decide to share it.

I started with an anonymous blog years ago because I was going through some difficult stuff. I didn't want my family to stumble across it. Even though I had every reason to vent and grumble, I didn't see any benefit in hurting them with what I had to say.

Now I'm in a different place and I don't really feel the need to grumble so much. I still have the private blog so I can turn to it whenever I need.

My parents know I have a blog and I refuse to tell them the name and I have specifically forbidden them to look at it. I use the F word...they would not approve.

My parents don't know I have a blog. Most of my friends don't know either. I wanted a place where I could write without censoring myself. I'm noticing, though, that as I get older I'm less interested in being a certain way for certain people, and more interested in just being who I am.

As that happens, I tend to tell more people I know in real life about my blog. I used to worry a lot that I'm too spiritual for my more secular minded friends, and too crass for my Christian friends. Now my attitude is screw it.

Christianity's big problem, in my opinion, is that there are too many people pretending they are perfect. I'm going to tell my truth, and if sometimes I shock a friend when I write about the 3 margaritas I had the other night so be it. If I make another friend uncomfortable because I talk about what God is doing in my life, so be it. It's a lot less stressful losing friends that can't handle the truth than it is keeping them by hiding and pretending.

EVERYONE knows I blog. Family, in-laws, friends....

None of us talk about it.

I'm gonna re-name mine The Elephant.

My friends and family all know about my blog. But I wish they didn't. URGH.

This so reminded me of how our kids must feel about their blogs and myspace pages.
My parents are both deceased and I miss them every single day, but I think at age 44 I'd still have to edit what I talk about if I knew they were reading it. Is there internet access in heaven?!?! hmmm.

My mother reads it, my father reads it, my sister reads it, my in-laws read it. Actually, I find it's a good way to let them know how I think and function without having to talk to them about it directly. Of course, I'm the David Sedaris of our family, but I do censor a little bit to try to avoid hurting their feelings.

Bossy's family is too poor for anything but dial-up. Luckily Bossy's blog takes approximately one hundred hours to download through that narrow hose.

Y - on parent's computer, consider adding a browser like Firefox / Mozilla. Just download and install, remove the desktop icon, and then you can bring it up from the menu and the 'rents won't know it's there. Then you can remove Mozilla's history and cache and cookies without effecting their IE stuff.

Haha! I remember when I met your parents and they just sat there staring at me like I was an oddity. They were totally freaked out.

My mom & my youngest sister read mine. I'll blog about something, & talk to mom a few days later & she'll ask about it. It freaked me out at first, but I'm over it. "How did you know that? Oh, right." My sister checks mine constantly while she's at work, which leads to much teasing about how she needs to get her ass off the internet & back to what they're paying her to do :)

I won't moderate comments or anything blog related from my parent's house. I'd freak if I knew anyone I knew read my blog. I feel like it would be like them reading my mind...and that is an unfair advantage! *lol*

Mine is totally public. I get shit for it. Sure. It's usually delayed shit, from people who don't want to tell me to my face or will tell someone else via gossip - and it comes back. They also know - things done to me very well end up On The Blog, they always do.

My family knows about it. I get about one call a week that is related to something that I say on the blog. I'm often told that I'm not supposed to swear or be crud and that less detail is really more. I don't agree with this but have found that there are definitly things that I do not write about because it would be a problem. I hate that I have to censor but I do. I find that I'm also censoring my comments to other bloggers because my family is starting to read the same blogs that I read.

Hell no they don't know. And they don't need to. It's for me. "I express. It's what I do. "

Oh and I'm so anonymous that I don't even go by my real name. Stella is my Honda.

My parents know my blog exists, but they do not know where and, perhaps surprisingly, they have never Googled me. Trust me, I check. I am pretty psycho about knowing who is reading my blog: stranger or person who might be mentioned and would then require me to go back and change earlier entries. Would want them to know what I *really* think! :)

Oh dear lord. I hope my parents never find my blog. yes, I am 36 years old and still hiding stuff from them. Now Beth, my birth mother, reads. And comments. But she is such a cool lady I don't mind. In fact, the blog is how she knows what I am up to!

My parents know I blog and they have accepted the fact that I get on airplanes and visit people that I know from the internets. I also lock all of my posts, because if they read my entries I would DIE! (and I don't want to get Dooced). I clear history 800,000,000,000 times when I my parent's computer. Oh yeah...I am THIRTY SIX YEARS OLD.

I can't keep secrets. Even my Granny knows about my blog.

I say keep it a secret if you can - the reason I have started a blog is so that I can vent without censoring. If only someone could invent a device that would enable you to block certain websites on someones computer remotely -Then you would be sweet. I appreciate your honesty in your blog but can see that some of your families members might not especially when you talk about that devil drink and all that boinking

I recently came out of the blogging closet with my family and it is still kind of weird. I really don't know if my parents read it or how much they read it, but I definitely consider that fact when I write now. I have to be a lot more careful about what I bitch about sometimes and am always afraid I'm going to offend someone.

My family knows about it, but very few of them read it. My parents never do. Just in case, though, there is no talk of The Boink on my site.

But hoo-boy, I WISH my mother-in-law didn't read my site, because good lord in heaven, there is some golden blog fodder with the in-laws. Alcoholism, crazy passive-aggressive behavior, the works. The one time I even hinted about a fight between my husband and my m-i-l, I caught grief about it. Ugh. Whatever.

Y - download Firefox Portable. Then everything you do online will only be available to you. All you do is d/l the browser to a USB key and put it in and take it out when you're done. Highly recommended!

I'm unsure if my family or others I'd rather not have reading know about my blog, so I do quite a bit of self-censoring. Hate it.

My family doesn't know, and that's the way I'm keepin' it. My boyfriend knows, but doesn't read it. (He knows I have Teh Sex and drink Devil Water)

Keep doin' what you're doin' Y. The 16th is not that far away!

Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I too blog without parental knowledge! :-)

I haven't told my parents but it's unlikely they'd read it anyways. My hubby knows I registered my domain name but I'm sure he just assumes it's all just pug pictures (which most of it is).

I think I made it one entry before I mentioned that my mother is the reason I need therapy. Needless to say, she doesn't know about the blog. Neither do any of my other family members!!! I even blog anonymously to be extra sure.

My parents are pretty illiterate when it comes to computers. They know of the blog though they've never read it. I'm 30 and "don't want to deal" either. LOL
Happy Mother's Day, Y!

I started blogging as a way to keep in touch with family far away (mother, siblings, cousins etc). So going secret isn't an option...

unless...

someone decided to write anonymously and use fake names and never actually tell anyone that this secret blog exists and even if they found it they wouldn't immediately know what it was or who it was about...

but I would never do that.

*grin*

when I'm feeling extra crazy, i don't clear the history.

my version of bungee jumping.

ooohhh the thrills.

I'm getting broadband so I can use my laptop again. I'm still afraid they'll find the various pictures I've taken of their craziness stored on THEIR computer.

heh.

My family somehow discovered my personal blog and I'm not much happy about it. I wish it didn't change how I write things, but the fact is that it does. Oh well. That's what I get for keeping my diary online, yes?

Happy Mother's Day!

I use my blog mostly for posting my art and my comments about it. My parents know about it but they don't read it because they have dial up and they can't see my art, so they don't bother looking. My mom knows diddly about computers anyway. But if they did look and read, they wouldn't like it because I think I said HELL and maybe DAMN in a couple of my entries, and they HATE swearing and they never ever swear, ever. Also a lot of my students at school read it to see what I've been painting so I'm forced to keep my comments extremely clean and impersonal. I really don't reveal much of myself at all. I would really like to know how my parents have managed to go through their entire lifetimes into their eighties without saying one swear word, ever. If they knew what I'm really like, they would probably disown me. Fuck, I know they would.

Hope you are having a wonderful Mother's Day!

I didn't know til yesterday that my one sister knows about Red Stapler. I think my other sis told her in a Stoned Moment (medical marijuana), because she had told the family before in Stoned Moments. I switched blogs once because of it.

Now I have the regular and the super secret blog, which only has invited readers, none of them family. I have to have somewhere to let my Inner Devil-Girl out.

My blog is something I do not feel that I have to share with my family. And.... I block all their isp's. It's effective and I have no guilt about it. I love them, speak to them weekly, and don't feel that they need to be reading my thoughts too.

My parents found out I had a WEB SITE (gasp) and the shit hit the fan. All it was, was a site with my artwork posted on it. Nothing offensive at all. No "four letter words", nothing. Lets keep in mind I am 27 years old, married, not living with them. And my art work was simply paintings and photography of non-offensive things. Like typewriters, and buildings.
I never told them about it because I didn't even THINK to tell them about it, because I didn't think they'd CARE. Or if they did care, they'd just ask me why I didn't take pictures of "nice things, like flowers, instead of old beat up cars".
It never really crossed my mind to send them a link to my site.
One day my mom was talking to a friend of mine, who happened to mention my site. OMG. My mom went off her nut. "A WEB SITE? SHE HAS A WEB SITE. SHE HAS A WEB SITE AND SHE DIDN'T TELL US? WHY? WHAT'S ON THE WEB SITE. WHY AREN'T WE ALLOWED TO BE INCLUDED IN WHAT'S GOING ON IN HER LIFE? HOW COME SHE CAN BROADCAST IT TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, BUT NOT US? WHAT IS ON THE WEB SITE THAT WE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE? WHAT IS THIS WEB SITE? WHY DIDN'T WE HEAR ABOUT THIS WEB SITE? SHE NEVER TOLD US SHE HAD A WEB SITE."
My phone starts ringing off the hook: "It's mom. Call me back. "........ "Hello hunny, it's mom again. Call me."..... "Hello, it's mom. Call me back sweetie." ... I finally called her, and had to listen to a thirty minute flustered rant about how I always do everything I can to keep my parents out of my life, and how "EVERYONE" knows about this "WEB SITE" except them, and how I've always kept them in the dark about my life, and how embarassing it is to find out that they're the only people on the planet who aren't in-the-know about their own daughter's WEB SITE, how humiliated she felt when she was talking to my friend and didn't know about this WEB SITE, how she wishes I didn't push my family away from me and shun them...
I gave her the site's address right away and said go ahead, knock yourself out, get a load of my super-secret painting of a bird cage that I've been hiding from you, or check out the photo of a telephone pole that I was hoping you'd never discover, jeez.
She never said a word about any of the crap on my site.

I don't bother hiding who I am in my blog, but I also never told my family/some of my friends the URL. Because that is where I go to vent.
Well, one day I found out that my sister had somehow found the site. Fine. Blocked her IP address. Then, months later, my MOTHER left a comment on a post that was like, two years old. Never mentioned it to her, just blocked her IP.
In my mind, it's none of their business, and if they want to read it, they should speak to me directly. I will calmly and clearly lay out the reasons why I'd really rather they not read it.

They will disown me.

I will cry and yell.

You know, typical family stuff.

I don't understand why Christians don't drink when Jesus turned water into wine and even chastised the host and told him to keep serving the good stuff. what the heck? if he liked wine why can't we?

I'm Christian, and I even pushed the limits so far as to go into a BAR. I lived to tell about it, lightning didn't strike me dead. Which, when you think about it, is kind of awesome. Legalistic Christians give the rest of us a bad name.
Some of my family knows about my blog. My sister. My husband. My mother-in-law (the nice one, not the one who is batshit crazy.) And that's it. I've gone into some deeply personal shit on my blog, and those are the only people from my circle that I trust to read it. Even so, I still *censor*, and yes, it is because I'm afraid of judgment.

Y, just read the article Blogola... yer famous (er)!

Y, how do you expect to keep your blog a secret when your face is plastered on the front page of the Wall Street Journal???
(By the way, you look absolutely BEE-YO-TI-FUL in that picture!!!)

Ughhhhhhhh......Front page....Wall Street Journal....the secret is out!!! I felt like one of my friends was on the front page when I saw your picture this morning. You looked GREAT!!!!! I want free stuff, too!!!!

Hi Y,

I'm just interested in starting a blog and I like what I saw on yours. Can you tell me what you used to create the blog (what software, etc).

Thanks,

Danielle

Hi Y,
I hope your parents don't read the Wall Street Journal! :-)

Great work with your blog though - - they (your parents) would and should be proud!

Look who I saw on the front of the WSJ!

Well, I guess it could be another Yvonne Marie with a blog called "Joy Unexpected", but, I'm suspicious it was you.

I am sooooooo censored. I had a good thing going and my proud husband announced to everyone, "LAURA HAS A BLOG." Most everyone was asking, "A WHA?" He politely explained that it was a website AND HERE IS THE URL. I have since moved my website to my own domain and write private entries on LiveJournal.

So, yeah. I do not know what I would do if my face was on the WSJ, I know my husband's family (some of them) read it!