The Devil in Miss Jones

It really irks Miss Missives when every woman who has had humans spring forth from her loins is called a mommyblogger. There's a difference between being a woman who among other things has children and likes to blog and a mommyblogger.

By and large, mommy bloggers are those women for whom the better part of their blog is dedicated to the things we typically associate with motherhood. When people tell Miss Missives that mommy blogs are all the same, I emphatically correct them. There are many distinct types of mommy blogs. Here are just a few:

1.The Family Time Capsule Mom

2.The I Am An Aspiring MILF Look How Wild I Am Even Though I Have Kids(usually found on myspace)

3.The I Write About Other Stuff and Am Only Vaguely Aware that Somewhere I Think I May Have Some Children

4.The Moms that Would Like to Sit and Check Email all Day and Get Paid For It(recognizable by bad content and a profusity of ads, pay per posts and reviews for free swag they got and reviews for stuff they'd like to get)

5.The I Seriously Need an Outlet Mom because Nobody is Being Honest About How Hard This Is and I Think Maybe I Need Medicine, Help

6.The I Need to Complain About My Mate and Get Validated by Strangers because it's Easier and More Rewarding than Fixing My Problems

7.The I'm Funny and I Like to Write, and Yes, I Have Kids, but I Also Have Sex, and Dreams that Don't Include My Kids or Even My Husband (Wife, Mate, Etc.) Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down but I'm honest and I'll write the way we all feel

8.The Snarky, Trashy, Loud(pick your adjective) Mom and Though I May Scare Off the Women in My Neighborhood, I'm Fun, and Interesting and Probably One of the Nicest People You'll Never Know

The Meanest Mom is most certainly a mommyblog but Jana is a delightful mix of the many forms that comprise the genre. There are plenty of stories about her four kids and yes, there are ads. Still, Jana is clearly a writer and therefore gets high marks in Miss Missives big book of good reads. She has brevity, wit and voice and given her kids names, it's clear Jana likes alliteration(more like alloteration).

She reminds me of some of my favorite atypical mommy bloggers. She is funny and irreverent and posts offbeat things that aren't found everywhere else. She manages to be snarky without being crass. Like many of my favorite mommy bloggers she loves her kids while mercilessly making fun of them. She also has her quiet sad moments; Jana, Miss Missives should give you a sharp fingernail in the eye for making her shed a tear.

The writing is top notch although because she focuses so heavily on the subject of parenthood, the Meanest Mom does lack broad appeal. Still, that's okay because there is way too much mediocrity in the province of mommy blogs and Miss Missives desperately wants more talented writers populating this realm.

Jana, I like your template, it's graphically vivid and speaks of your personality. The stripes are a little too reminiscent of television broadcast bars but I can see what you are going for. I don't dig the ads but they aren't overwhelming. I'm not a fan of the three column design in part because I really think you could benefit from a wider text area.

In general, it is clean, tidy and smart, just as I suspect you are.