But I do find reading about my thoughts to be interesting. (I waste a lot of time rereading old posts of ours. There’s some good stuff in there!) And sometimes I crack myself up. (What does that mean about my sense of humor? Hm…)
On a day to day thing though, meh. I work. I spend time with my family. I do laundry and groceries and occasionally shop at whole foods. I’m not bored living my life, but reading about it would be pretty far down in list of things to do (somewhere above “things that are really painful” but below “things I don’t enjoy doing but have to get done anyway”).
This lack of interesting stuff going on in my life seems to have increased (widened?) with DH getting a new job and making money. I just wouldn’t want to read about someone like me. I was more interesting when we had to scrimp and save for stuff.
But interesting isn’t really what I’ve ever been aiming for. One doesn’t really want to live in interesting times. (Though one does. Which is depressing.)
And I admit, the daycare saga may be interesting to some, but it’s just depressing to me! My poor little DC2. Similarly having an incontinent kitten. I’m sure I will look back on nice kitty’s preference for piles of cloth and laugh some day.
Obviously the solution is to ask #2 to write more about her life. Because what she’s been doing is tres interesting! At least, I think it is.
Would you find your life interesting to read about, and is that a good or a bad thing in your opinion? Do you prefer reading about people like you or people who are different or both or neither?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
November 11, 2014 at 8:37 am
I know that my kids think I have the most boring job ever — all I do is sit in an office at a computer, and then occasionally go to a classroom to teach boring stuff (my 7-year-old sat in my class recently). What can I say? Outwardly it must seem so indeed, I am not a superhero or a cop or even a chef, where you can tell stuff is happening (although even these professions are considerably less glamourous in real life than on TV). I think my life looks boring to an outsider, but being in my head is really fun. I too read my old Academic Jungle archives and sometimes blow myself away (“Wow, I wrote this? Cool.”)
I like hearing/reading about people’s lives, even the mundane stuff. I find it deeply comforting.
November 11, 2014 at 8:40 am
I almost had my 7 year old sitting in on a class recently, but at the last minute a friend whose mom had the day off invited hir to stay for the day instead. I don’t know if ze would have found it boring since sadly I’m teaching a lot of the same stuff to my college students that ze is getting in 4th grade.
It is true that my research is fascinating. :) But I can’t really write about that here.
November 11, 2014 at 9:46 am
Yes, I think reading about my life would be interesting. Mostly, it would be about my attacks from husband from an hour after after the marriage ceremony to this day. When I say attacks, most of that was not physical. He and his new wife continue to this day to alienate my children from me. He was abusive in every way imaginable. He is bizarre and a minister which allows him much latitude.
I promised a sociology professor I would write a book, but if I do, it will only hurt my children. For an independent studies grade, I did start it.
My children are older but still very protective of him. He made that their job when they were just young children. Parental alienation is a powerful concept.
My one thought now is to start a blog, anonymously, of course. That would be my solution to writing a book, a start that later could be made into a coherent whole. Still, I live in fear he would find it and fling it at my children in order to make them angry with me. He would always prefer to hurt them to hurt me. Yep, fifty years and I cannot completely be free of him. He has the charisma of Jim Jones…remember the People’s Temple and 909 people he convinced to commit suicide with cyanide. Maybe some of you don’t remember this event.
November 11, 2014 at 12:11 pm
I’m so sorry you went through that. We’d read it if you want to write it. Hang in there and do what’s best for you; sounds like your children are grown and can take care of their own feelings now.
November 12, 2014 at 1:37 am
They are so brainwashed by him that they report to him anything I say and he interprets it for them. What is best for me would be to restore me to my children. There are brief interludes when they will actually be friendly, so he must tell them how to feel. Their feelings would be to turn away from me forever. Thanks. When I can afford to get a wordpress blog, I will write it all down.
November 13, 2014 at 7:13 am
WordPress blogges are free.
November 11, 2014 at 10:41 am
I love reading about people’s mundane day to day lives. I often think I should seek out some published diaries from when people kept detailed diaries to read just for my own entertainment. My day to day life is probably pretty boring to other people (right now it’s just work and childcare), but it’s been an eventful year for our family (graduation and a new job for DH, a big move, a new job for me in the pipeline, a baby due Thursday(!!!)) that I know I’ll be glad I kept records of on my blog and line a day journal.
November 11, 2014 at 10:42 am
I was sure the baby had already been born! Good luck!
I think most other people’s lives are more interesting than my own…
November 13, 2014 at 2:18 pm
There used to be a site called “Open Diary” that did just that. Most users have now migrated to a site called ProseBox. It is fascinating, actually. You get to get the details of how other people think and what goes on inside their head, and follow people for years of their lives. It is a lot like a blogging community, except there is no advertisement / self promotion, and people just write about their lives and whatever they feel like. And it is much more private and meant to be relatively anonymous (more like pf blogs). So, it is with some credibility that I say that some people can make even a mundane life interesting to read about.
It really is just a diary, but with a community.
November 11, 2014 at 11:07 am
Looking back over the whole 49 years to date, my life has been pretty interesting – and I could write it up in a way that was entertaining to the average reader. But the quotidien is, let’s face it, repetitive, and largely devoid of noteworthy incident. I also don’t know that the lessons I’ve learned and conclusions I’ve reached would seem unique or enlightening to others if I were trying to write about them regularly.
Guess I can sum up my approach by noting that I keep a reading journal, not a diary. :-)
November 11, 2014 at 11:16 am
I bet your conclusions would be both unique and enlightening! Or at least enlightening (it’s hard to be unique on such a large internet).
(If you’re wondering what spawned this post– I’ve been having a hard time coming up with money stuff for Mondays!)
November 11, 2014 at 3:00 pm
maybe I’ll try a couple of “personal reflections” posts just to see what they feel like to write. :-)
November 11, 2014 at 3:01 pm
do itte!
November 11, 2014 at 2:35 pm
I was just thinking along these lines in regard to our budget. Now that DH and I are both employed there really isn’t too much to budget about.
But I do really enjoy reading your posts and I have especially enjoyed the daycare ones (although you do have my sympathy!! Poor dc2!). We are getting ready to enter daycare ourselves and I’ve learned a lot about what to look for from your posts. Both good and bad.
There’s definitely something to be said for boring yet happy lives. And having left academia myself recently, I want to hear what #2 is up to as well!
November 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm
inorite? All I can tell you is that she recently went to a conference that she paid for out of pocket. Here’s hoping that next Monday she’ll tell you about her New Mantra! (Not just because I’m completely out of ideas for money Monday posts…)
I also find my daycare posts interesting… most of the unpleasant parts of my life are interesting(!) In that sense, the boring everything is working out just fine parts are much preferred IRL! Maybe if I had more exciting hobbies… (But we won’t change ourselves [too much] in order to have things to blog about– that’s part of our blogging code.)
p.s. Anything more to say about leaving academia? Your blog is all 2012 dog party followed by Nov 2014 prickly pear jam!
November 12, 2014 at 9:12 am
And having left academia myself recently, I want to hear what #2 is up to as well!
Whaaaa? What happened?
November 12, 2014 at 7:06 am
Oh, I like this!
One of my job descriptions is memoirist so yes I like reading about people’s lives. Although I don’t assume my own life is particularly interesting I also know that written well ANYTHING can be interesting.
I like reading about the lives of other academic mothers and people, generally, with whom I feel an affinity (in the blogosphere, for example) so all good.
And p.s. Tiny Boy also likes to bite. It’s making me insane. I think something might have clicked when he was watching Babe, though, and the sheep was bitten TO DEATH.
November 12, 2014 at 7:09 am
I love listening to Story-core (story corps?) on NPR on Fridays.
November 14, 2014 at 7:23 am
Of course, it is kind of difficult to drive with all those tears welling up in my eyes on Friday mornings… Veteran hospice nurse with the grandma… *sob*
November 13, 2014 at 7:14 am
I regularly cracke myself uppe, too. It’s a sign of a good sense of humor!
November 13, 2014 at 1:04 pm
I’m boring but I like reading about people’s lives and thoughts even if they could be categorized as boring. And why not? Here you are, making a post about the mundane about ten times more engaging than most other blogs I might happen across. :) Whether the writers are similar to me doesn’t matter, just whether they’re decent writers.
… most of the unpleasant parts of my life are interesting(!) In that sense, the boring everything is working out just fine parts are much preferred IRL! Maybe if I had more exciting hobbies… (But we won’t change ourselves [too much] in order to have things to blog about– that’s part of our blogging code.)
Pretty much. My life is most boring when things are fine. Who wants to hear “I’m happy with my job that I can’t talk about it detail, I’m happy with my husband and dog, I did laundry and made fun of the dog’s sleepbarking”? (The timing of this comment is a bit ironic given I just blogged such a post yesterday ;))
That’s all to the good of course, I am totally fine with a boring, drama-free life. I did once had a commenter (troll? Unsure) say she only read my blog for the drama. Still haven’t figured out if there was much to that.
A lifetime ago, I had hobbies that weren’t sitting in front of the computer before the chronic pain made it impossible, so occasionally I think it’d be fun to get a new hobby and having something to blog about would be a bonus but I’m too cheap to do that right now. ;)
November 13, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Sleepbarking is interesting!
November 13, 2014 at 2:11 pm
It has to do much more with the writing style than the writers life. I am not that great at storytelling. I see this as a plus, as I’m not a dramatic person, and good stories (fiction or truth) need a bit of drama. I also down play pretty much everything to the extreme (at least in my offline life) and am horrible at self promotion and drawing energy to myself.
I find it most therapeutic / helpful for me to vent about things, but it is pretty boring to read. I do like reading about my ideas. I actually like reading about my own life, but only because it is mine, and I know it would be dull to someone who can’t read the words I wrote and fill in the blanks with memory.
But some people can make even the most boring events dramatic sounding, and i find that to be a good thing.
November 13, 2014 at 3:42 pm
Hm… maybe the problem is that I don’t want to interject drama where none initially exists? Or I’m just not a creative story teller. :/ If I can’t make my stories interesting to me…
You’re right that some people are amazing story-tellers and will have you doubled over laughing at seemingly nothing.
November 14, 2014 at 2:57 pm
I actually prefer reading about people I can relate to – in regard to profession, relationships, personality type, location, all those things. I suppose it’s because there aren’t that many of them.
November 14, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Huh. I don’t know if number of people like me is a factor in what I find interesting or not… Maybe scarcity keeps things interesting.