Marcia Kester Doyle started her
Menopausal Mother blog the last Saturday of August, 2011, thirty years after she received her Creative Writing degree. Why the vast span of years? Marcia was raising children!
Marcia states that she was a nervous wreck putting her work out for the world to read, so much so, in fact, that she had to calm her nerves with a glass of Pinot Grigio. She had published a lot of poetry but never had any luck publishing prose. The thought of writing nonfiction never entered her mind – until her kids grew up. With all that pent-up creative energy, blogging seemed to be a welcome outlet, especially since that particular venue offered instant feedback! And, WOW! Wait until you see how many followers she has!
The majority of people who read Marcia's blog are middle-aged women who are probably going through menopause themselves, but as Marcia relates, "I do have a surprising number of male readers/followers who leave terrific comments on my site. I think the blog attracts men because I do use some 'bathroom' humor and I'm not afraid to talk about personal habits, or body 'malfunctions'. Guys always seem to get a kick out of that kind of humor! The middle-aged women are there because everything I write is so relatable to them. I also have several young girls who read and follow my blog-–they actually share the posts with their mothers and they understand my brand of humor."
Marcia's original intentions when she started blogging was to educate women on menopausal symptoms and to provide statistics, but after finding numerous blogs all over the Internet already discussing that topic, she decided to take a different approach – humor.
As Marcia states, "Menopause is a difficult transition time for most women--half the time we feel like we are alone in this and losing our mind. My blog, although it makes light of the situation, also validates those feelings. We are NOT alone and we are NOT losing our minds--these are all NORMAL symptoms of menopause. Although medications can help, there are some aspects of menopause that can not be controlled, so it is a matter of acceptance and learning to deal with it by focusing on the humorous side of it. There IS a light at the end of the tunnel----it won't last forever (and thank God, no more periods!!).
In that sense, I think my blog is very beneficial to my female audience--it teaches them to look at the lighter side of this phase in life. If nothing else, I (hopefully) start off their day with a chuckle when they read one of my blog posts. As far as benefits to my male readers, several have claimed that my blog gave them new insights as to what their wives were going through and thanked me for helping them. I will admit though, my favorite responses (comments on the blog) are the ones where people tell me they spit out their drink because they were laughing so hard when they read a post. THAT is the real reason I am writing this blog!"
Although the topic of the blog is menopause, her blog is relatable to all kinds of women – and men. It's funny, warm, engaging, and light. She keeps her language clean, she doesn't discuss religion or politics, and she offers her readers sprinkles of pixie dust as her heart follows you down the path of her blog. (You'll have to read
Menopausal Mother to see what I'm talking about.)
Word of caution: Liquids have a way of spurting forth from the mouths of Menopausal Mother's readers, splattering over keyboards everywhere. Don't drink and read at the same time!
