Category Archives: Opinion

Why Gender Reveal Parties are Over Rated

Opinion, Parenting, , , , , , , , , ,

If you are someone fortunate enough to not know what a gender reveal party is, honestly, I am a bit jealous of you and consider yourself lucky. This is one of the latest trends when it comes to having a baby or announcing that you are expecting. Instead of either waiting til you give birth to know the gender, or finding out and simply phoning family or friends, people thought it would be a great idea to have a party to celebrate.

What seems so innocent started pretty basic. A couple would get their ultrasound at approximately 20 weeks to have all the anatomy checked out and they ask the tech to write the gender down on a piece of paper or in an envelope. They then would bring this to a bakery for example and ask them to write some clever saying on the top like “Pink or Blue, which one is you?”. Then they would make the icing on the inside either pink or blue so that when the parent(s) cut into the cake they would know the gender based on the frosting inside. How this whole fad was created I will never know but one can only assume it was based off of someone doing a small reveal and them wanting to do something bigger.

Well, fast forward 5 or 10 years and now it has become some big competition. You have people who still do the cakes, that probably will never change. Then you have people who also do balloons, whether filled with confetti or even a powder. And whenever it is popped you see the color fill the air around. Then you have the crazy folks who need to announce the gender of their little bundle with explosives or some sort of dangerous way. Which sure, does not always backfire but more and more recently you see people getting hurt or even family’s having a member pass away due to some freak accident regarding the way they choose to share this moment with their friends and family.

Then you have people like myself who are old fashioned and when we found out we were having a boy with my 1st child we simply took a photo of the ultrasound and sent it to family and friends and announced it online/texts/phone calls which, brace yourself, completely FREE! We did not want to do a big celebration when it comes to announcing the sex of our baby because as exciting as it is we do not want another reason to spend money. We dont feel like we were competing with anyone so we did not want to give reasons for others or ourselves to spend money.

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And before you say, “But it doesn’t have to cost money!”. Any type of party whether a baby shower, birthday, anniversary will cost money. Sure you can do it on a lower end by just getting the cake with different colored frosting on the inside BUT there is a lot more to it also. From getting the blue or pink colored plates or cups where you use the color you guess the baby will be. To decorations which you can do a solid neutral color like black or gold and silver. Or again, the two colors blue and pink. Then some gender reveal parties have little games and things that you also play. And lastly food. You cannot have a part if there is no food! Especially with a pregnancy involved! Again, you could save money with doing a pot luck style where folks being different dishes however that is another different cost for people to almost foot part of the bill.

The problem, why these gender reveal parties are so over rated, in my opinion is it becomes a show and competition people have with neighbors. With internet and technology as far advanced as it is you can search videos endlessly a out different gender reveals while thinking of your own way to up stage the ones already out there. By doing this it can also cause these reveals to take a dangerous, and even deadly route also. This is due to people wanting to create bigger explosions and bigger shows in front of their friends and families which can ultimately create permanent consequences. And for what? To be the next biggest or viral video online. There is also things that can go wrong like confetti guns not firing, balloons being let go and floating up into the air without knowing the gender too. Not every party that is planned goes perfectly.

Then you have the risk of also showing public disappointment if you are expecting to have a different gender than you were hoping on. Recently there was a video was a video of a dad and mom breaking the balloon with pink being the color scene. The dad immediately showed his disappointment. There is nothing wrong with expecting or hoping for a gender but to show THAT MUCH outward emotions over the gender of your child which ultimately you have a 50/50 chance at either a boy or a girl maybe knowing before everyone else would be a better idea. In the heat of the moment it can be really hard to control your reactions especially if you are more set on one gender than the other one.

For me, I am a mom of one and pregnant with number 2. Our goal is to have a family of 3 children. None of them (even the future one) we have ever thought about having a gender reveal party. Even pre Covid we never thought to have one. I guess we are nearly old fashioned where we just would rather tell our family and friends personally instead of making a big event out of it. There will be other opportunities for us to celebrate out newest family member and we just do not believe that their gender is one of those!

Have you planned to have a gender reveal party before?

Did you pass up on the idea of having a party to reveal it?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog

Life, Opinion, , , , , , , , , ,

Starting blog was never something I thought about when I was growing up and what I would be doing at my age. It really came to be when I wanted to keep producing some content after my son was born while not having to be live streaming and active in that space. Having blogs scheduled and what not was a huge help and slowly but surely after a year and a half I am finally finding how to navigate my way around how things work.

One of the biggest things I am gathering when it comes to blogging is that niches change. And how important it is to have a niche. I talk about my feelings about niches here if you want to see something more specific to what niches are and how they are useful when blogging. Something that I touch base on is how I stuck to one niche and I shouldn’t have for so long. When I started to blog I wrote about streaming and advice and tips and tricks that I had learned. I was such a new blogger I barely knew anything when it came to tags to get your blogs seen. I never knew what SEO was and still don’t fully understand but I am learning. Since making a pivot from streaming blogs to blogs about parenting and my own life, I have seen so much better response that It really is mind blowing that I stuck with streaming for such a long time.

Some of my most popular blogs are the ones that have made me uncomfortable writing and are the most real. My struggling with weight loss was published in November of 2020 for example and that blog still to this day gets reads as well as likes on it. It was part of me facing who I am and what I struggle with in hopes I can maybe help others in the process. When you write blogs, or at least I find when I write them, and I am the most real with myself or even with you all, they seem to get a way better response than when I try to spit out different facts or something that is very one toned and robotic. Being relatable makes it easy for people to connect and I think it also adds a lot of value to a person reading when a post is relatable too.

Pinterest is something that I still am very fresh with and do not to as much as I should. but again that is a learning experience. Out of all the socials that I thought I would really use for blogging pinterest was not one of those! I also didn’t know that you are also able to use pinterest itself to schedule pins to be posted. I was using an app for it however this makes it easier. I also have used canva in order to create pins which has helped tremendously. I need to plan this for myself in my planner a few times a month to schedule pins to post blogs.

Following more bloggers on Twitter. I know this seems to be a no brainer to me but for a while I had strictly used my Twitter for streaming. I had barely anyone who, if anyone who blogged followed. I find that watching others who blog post theirs, or even their tips and tricks can be super useful. The blogging community is so much bigger than I thought it was and a lot of folks are just trying to help one another and grow their brand or business in the process too. Seeing others who are successful also can be really motivating when you might lack motivation. The amount of different things people can write about really is endless. It can also help if someone writes some blogs similar to your own and you can get ideas for your own blogs to write. No that does not mean to copy someone word for word or their own opinions, but seeing different subjects can help trigger your own ideas.

Lastly something that I find I dont do nearly enough as I should is to read other blogs! I need to find out how to search and find different blogs that I would be interested in reading regularly. The same goes for any writing, where you will get better as you read and educate yourself on what it takes to be successful. Having a better idea about what others do and are successful will help me to fine tune myself and better promote my blog as well too! Successful bloggers are a great way to help grow my knowledge of how to be successful myself however it is something that I put on the back burner or make excuses for and push away when the time comes. I need to make a plan to even spend some time each week catching up on some favorite blogs that may or may not be on the same subjects that I write about.

There is a lot of things that I wish I knew when I first started blogging. These are things that as I am learning them and growing my blog, I am slowly and surely starting to see more success with my own blog. Learning to blog can be overwhelming for sure. Especially when you are trying to learn what different aspects of it, I find myself being overwhelmed and giving up. There is also different spots and people who have mini books that are able to purchase for more than reasonable prices that have basically done the research for you! I need to find these myself and use them. I think it is a great way for me to grow my brand even if I am just a small fry in a big pond though!

Did you start blogging as a way to produce content?
Was your main focus to build a brand?
Or are you just researching how to blog and are prepping for your own start in the near future?

Let me know in the comments below, I am always willing to hear what folks are finding to be successful!

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5 Tips to Make Your Social Media More Enjoyable!

Life, Opinion, , , , , , , ,

Being on social media can be great however there is also a dark side of things as well. You ever check your phone or computer for the time but get distracted instantly by looking for something else and forget to even check the time? Or have you ever by chance went on Facebook or twitter and you find yourself 30 minutes deep into a “doom scroll” where you continuously are scrolling and not really taking in the information you are reading you are just trying to scroll this infinite page? Here are some of my tips that I have only recently just followed for myself, and by doing so my enjoyment on social medias have become that much better also!

1. Un-follow Negative People. I know this might seem like a no brainer but it really isn’t. I was following people who perhaps might have had drama around them whether it be streaming or people I have seen through tweets too. This also includes people who post nothing but negative things all the time. This is not the person who is venting or who is commenting on something in the world with their opinion. This is the people who post “Having a bad day” every single day, and then when someone tries to cheer them up they immediately respond with something to enforce the helper that nothing can be done to turn the day around. Un-following these types of people can be hard because you feel like maybe un-following them might impact them mentally however at the end of the day if reading these constantly sour posts impacts your view and experience that should come first. Always. Since un-following these types of people my timeline especially on twitter or the “Streamer Twitter” has been that much more positive also too.

2. Follow interests you enjoy. This was something that honestly took me so long to do and I have no idea why! For the longest time since I started streaming a few years ago I followed streamers or anything video game related. Well, believe it or not I do have other interests besides streaming, case in point this blog! What I started to do was search in the search bard for tags like #Blogger, or #Blogging. Another thing I did was I wanted to get more in touch with the art community and creating so that I could potentially tap into that when i wanted to by searching again hashtags like #Artist, #Painting, #Crafting etc and then I would check out their profiles (A lot of them really retweet others so the spam is real but you can mute a profile so that it is not always near the top or clouding your personal timeline as well too). This was great for me to keep an eye on trendy artwork that people are making money off of as well.

3. Limit time on it seems like a pretty easy thing to say. But when you spend hours and hours on it per day you can lose track of time and that can be challenging. Set some time away and limit when you want to interact. A few tips I started doing was that I stopped taking my tablet to bed. Not that I don’t bring my phone and that isn’t bad also but when I had my tablet I found that i was spending so much more time trying to fall asleep. Another is I don’t typically check social medias until I am awake a bit and then I just quickly browse. A lot of the times too I try to “forget” about my phone. I won’t carry it around the house with me because I find I check it more frequently. I also try not to have any notifications on it either. I find when my phone is constantly buzzing I am more inclined to reach for it. I also have my phone on silent nearly 95% of the time unless I am anticipating a phone call which I then would turn it up. This helps to get out of the habit for reaching for it.

4. Block or mute people who you really do not like! This goes a step more than un-following. Sometimes when you have a lot of mutuals with a person simply un-following does nothing because you still are going to see many things popping up if people you follow interact with them. To stop this all together just mute or block them. Some people I know who I un-followed like to be social justice warriors recycling the same tweets and praying on others with guilt and for sympathy and others eat it up. I muted their profiles so no matter how many people like these fake tweets I wont see them anymore. It just doesn’t make sense. And I am tired of seeing it cloud up my timeline!

5. Disconnect. I know this may sound difficult and hard to do. But think if you are camping what are the chances you are going to be sitting on your phone instead of socializing and enjoying the company you are with. This might be the hardest of all because disconnecting can be tough. And if you are saying you are disconnecting, DO IT. Don’t just post about how you are disconnecting only to sit on there all day. That will not be doing anything for you mentally or to recharge. Some of the best days is when you barely touch your device and you have the day pass and you think whoa, I accomplished a lot!

There you have it! That is my top 5 tips for making social media more enjoyable. We all have been trapped down the rabbit hole of wasted time trying to search and find the best tips and tricks that help you. This is just what I have found to work for me and if none of these work experiment with things that will work for you!

What is something that you do to disconnect from social medias?
Do you do any of these tips or tricks? And did they work for you?

Let me know in the comments below!

-Stacey

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Why I Can’t Pick a Niche

Life, Opinion, , , , , , ,

When it comes to anything related to content creation whether it be something to do with streaming, blogging, YouTube videos, and whatever else, the number one thing you always hear people talk about is picking a niche. Apparently it is a lot easier to grow when you zero in on an audience and who you would like to cater to. Having too broad of a topic for your content can make it hard for the right people to find you.

There is many many many types of niches that you can pick just on blogging alone. Since this is where I am writing we will talk about it in regards to blogging however picking a niche is also important for streaming. Currently for streaming I try to play Dead by Daylight, Rainbow Six Siege and also sometimes I will do art on stream too. As for blogging I was more or less started this about streaming (I know crazy right) and for the longest time I was finding that I had basically no visitors to the blog. I thought because I was a streamer that I had to write about streaming. I was wrong.

A niche can be super important because you want to almost specialize with a particular group of people. As I mentioned, I was into streaming and I was posting two blogs per week about streaming to little to no visitors or readers. I wasted my time. However maybe that was because most streamers who want advice they look at streams or they will look at YouTube for the tips and tricks and blogging really just isn’t the way it goes. There is many people who I see online and follow on twitter who also have various types of niches. A few folks I follow have blogs that are based around parenting and different things they have learned along the way. Some also talk about struggles they may have if their child has certain conditions that they are unfamiliar with and their journey to knowing more about them. A few people I follow have loosely based lifestyle blogs and they typically try to talk about multiple things from fashion, to foods, or even things they might do for self care. Stuff like that. Then you have some that are self help blogs and try to be educational about various issues such as teaching how to use different platforms better, being a better blogger, and things of that nature.

As I mentioned, I used to write about streaming. Now I would say if I HAD to choose a niche I would be placing myself into maybe the category of Lifestyle? though I would also say that I tend to write about what being a first time parent is like, personal struggles, updates each month that can help update folks who may not have been around in a while. Also I tend to write about silly things that have popped up in my head whether going on in the world or controversial or just randomly happening also too. I don’t know if I could specifically write about just one topic such as only writing about parenting. Or only writing about something else. I found that with only sticking to streaming, about 6 months down the road I was either thinking of ways to recycle things or I was running out of things to do and I was feeling myself getting lazy.

The best thing I think I did if I was to pinpoint anything about this blog though, was to let go of my original niche and start over a little bit. I feel like I have had so much growth when it came to blogging after letting go of streaming and trying to focus more about my life and putting more emotions into how I write. Still to this day one of the most successful blogs I had written was one about how I struggle with weight loss. That was something that really was helpful for me and I feel like a lot of people maybe could understand where I was going through and because I was real and posted that I seen a lot of growth for this. To the point, that I still see folks who enjoy reading it and like it here and there even though it was published in November!

I guess, what I’m saying is if you are starting out. Trying to narrow down some sort of goal audience would probably be better in the long run. Remember though, It is totally okay to pick a niche and decide to change it if you aren’t seeing the results that you might see either. I know for me, If I had thought about it I wish I would have stopped writing about streaming a few months sooner than I did because I might have stayed more consistent and could have used those extra few months to pivot myself to where I am now. Don’t forget also, picking a niche that is too specific can be hurtful in the long run if no one really shows an interest in that subject, same as the flip side of picking something that is far too broad. If I picked blogging about say sea lions, there might not be a whole lot of people who would be interested in it. Same as if I picked something such as Outer space which has many many avenues to write about people might find my subject too broad and not really interested because there is nothing specific or unique about it.

At the end of the day I would say that I am a lifestyle blogger. I have a few topics such as parenting, mental health and growth, motivation and goals, and funny humor, even content creation as a parent too, but I don’t think I could just pick one of those, I like to keep things new and fresh. And sticking with streaming almost made it so that I did not want to write at all because I found it to be very boring and not fun anymore.


Was it hard picking your niche as a content creator?
Has it always been the same or changed?

Let me know in the comments below about your journey!

-Stacey

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Why Tim Horton’s Sucks Now

Life, Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I think it is safe to say that most people in Canada or even some parts of the world knows what Tim Horton’s is. Tim’s would be the Dunkin Donuts equivalent to the United States, or even the Krispy Kremes of the United Kingdom. And whatever else you would consider a big chain coffee shop with pastry delights in them. Tim Horton’s is a coffee shop. Chances are if you live in Canada you can get to one within a 30 minute drive if not far far before. Some streets go as far as having a Tim Horton’s every so many blocks. In gas stations, stand alone, in malls or in other stores as a side spot too.

Photo by Ahmed Raza Khan Films on Pexels.com

I think one of the biggest issues that I have with Tim Horton’s, and I would say a lot of Canadians have the same issue, it is that the company is not even Canadian owned anymore. The company was sold to Burger King or Wendy’s or whatever have you but the company that every Canadian knew of is no longer the Canadian company that we once knew and loved. I would even beg the idea that the quality has gone down as well. Everything pre-made and packaged and bakers simply throw in the oven. Or at least that is the way it tastes, like it has come off a factory line. Not to mention the regular things people once loved like coffee and things have changed. People are reaching for the cheaper counter part at McDonald’s which need I mind you in the summer has the dollar menu for drinks as well too.

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My personal gripe with Tim Horton\s was when they took my beloved Cinnamon Donuts and Timbits off the menu. That was my all time favorite flavor of donut and they took it away. It was a flavor that I had known and loved from when I was a child to the moment they removed it from rotation. This particular item isn’t even out in particular seasons or anything they are just gone. Now I have not found a spot that has these items still but if there is a place out there I urge you PLEASE comment where and if I am ever around hopefully they have that there when I arrive. It was such a simple flavor where they have taken it off and have put on more complicated flavors such as Oreo. Do we really need an Oreo flavor baked good from Tim’s, I think not!

Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com

Another memory of my childhood that has been gone and I am unable to find is the “Gingerbread Figure”. See how progressive Tim hortons used to be? And now what, Nothing! This was just as it explains, a gingerbread person with either just icing or icing and a harden sugar head. Sometimes it was based on holidays or a generic girl or boy person. It really depended. Sometimes it was cartoons of popular movies or kids shows or even just animals too. I always loved going with my grandparents to Tim Horton’s in the mornings when I stayed the night there and looking through the glass case at Tim’s to see that they had some made! I would choose this one every time. I would always pick off one of the legs and then the arms and then save the sugar head for last. I know this probably sounds super morbid then it really is but honestly I was a small child and it really isn’t that bad!

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I will say even though they have basically sold out the heart and soul of Canadians that they still do a lot for the country. Especially for the children. For the supporting minor hockey, the Timbits so to speak or their camp day and smile cookie day too. They continue to help our programs that are impacting the kids of the country’s lives daily and helping the art of sport be more accessible. And their camps that are including everyone no matter their abilities.

I’m sure, after I have tried to rip into the Tim’s you are asking yourself, Wow, Does she like anything there? I do actually. I enjoy having their iced coffee made with chocolate milk and I also enjoy having an Iced Capp also made with chocolate milk. Sometimes I don’t mind a sour cream glazed donut or a chocolate chip cookie, Only if they are chewy though! As far as anything else I really am not a fan of their bagels that i once loved. I avoid that. Tea biscuits cheese no ham or just plain are also good however microwaved with butter is how they are enjoyed best!

Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com

Even though they continue to do things that tick most people off. I probably will still enjoy their products here and there. I know it sounds cray why would you still go there when you have a lot of negative to say. I still enjoy some of their things, however if they were to change their iced capps that would be extremely hard for me to go there really. A major point we go there is because of their convenience. When I go for a road trip we always stop their first for their quick eats and coffee even if it doesn’t taste very good which is happening more often than not.

I am all for supporting Canadian shops however the more time passes they seem to be becoming less and less of what my memories are made of. Something that was a part of nearly every shift on my way there has become a few times a year. I just am not interested in going out especially with Covid let alone for their maybe okay tasting drinks. We have recently upgraded our home coffee in the previous year to a Nespresso and with the Cold Wave system that nearly instantly cools hot coffee, I would say that there really is no need.

Is there something that you really liked when you were younger from a restaurant or shop that has changed and you find yourself avoiding it

is it only known in your country or worldwide

Let me know as I am curious if anyone else has experienced this as well too!

When Are You Getting Married/Having Any Kids?

Hard Subjects, Life, Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , ,

As an adult, these are two of the most annoying questions I think I have ever heard in my life. Like many other I am sure hearing them can make you feel not very good about yourself. They may make you feel frustrated or angry. Or they may even make you feel sad also. Being the oldest out of my siblings and being the last to have a child and get married, it sucked to hear this. My boyfriend and I had just welcomed out first child in 2020 and that same year were together 10 years. No, we are not engaged either. However my brother who is a bit younger was married around 21 and had a step son and a daughter a few years later. My sister was also married fairly early and is also with 2 kids too. Hearing these questions were not a good feeling and to be fair near the end it was extremely frustrating and quite frankly made me angry.

People think asking these is harmless.  It’s not. Maybe a couple has decided against doing all of these. Maybe they have been actively trying to have a child for years and have been unsuccessful. Or perhaps they have had miscarriages and this is a reminder of that. Asking these questions is extremely personal. Not to mention if they have answered this for people multiple times prior chances are that they wont be changing their answer. Or they simply do not wish to tell you.

Since I was the last person to start a family out of my siblings and was with my boyfriend for a long time I got this question often. It sucked. It made me feel like I should be doing something in my life to please everyone. And that is not okay. I was waiting to have kids as was my boyfriend. We never wanted kids young so we could live our life. But the outside pressures and always being asked was something we didn’t like hearing year in year out multiple times. Near the end it made us angry like our last answer wasn’t good enough so the question being asked continuously was annoying. Our answer never changed. We always said soon or we always said yes, we planned on having kids. We never said that we didn’t want to have kids or a family with children. It was just that it wasn’t necessarily convenient for us. We liked to have the freedom of being able to do a little travel within the country and just leave out dog home. We liked being able to do a quick day trip around where-ever without thinking about packing up the car and children. We had no problem waiting for kids and that is exactly what we did. Our problem was with people who would want us to have children sooner based on their expectations of it. The comments we have heard was “We’ll you don’t want to be old having kids” or ” you want to see them have grand kids” Which was super frustrating to me because my mom had a previous child in the 80s whom passed away, however my 3 siblings and I were born when her and my dad were early 30’s. The exact same age I am now. I feel like there was this pressure because my younger siblings had their own families so young that I was being pushed to do the same thing.

As I am sure you can tell I am becoming the black sheep of the family as I have a child and am also not married. My boyfriend has no desire to get married however I know that some day I would like to be married and it never had to be before kids though. I always pictured being married after we were finished having children and they would all be a part of it. My brother had proposed to his now wife after knowing her for a brief period and her being there after he went away with the military. My sister was engaged to her now husband after they were together a few years and had knew one another in high school. I have told my boyfriend that yes, I do want an engagement ring on my finger. However I am not going to start planning or anything as that isn’t even on my radar in terms of things I want to plan. But eventually yes I would like it to happen. Comments from friends and family like “You aren’t even engaged yet!” or “You have a child before getting married?”. Honestly, My boyfriend and I had just celebrated a 10 year anniversary, I would like to think that we are going to be going pretty steady if we aren’t broken up now. Especially since I know i drove him crazy from quarantine also.

I think at the end of the day you have to be honest about your feelings with this to people who keep pestering you. If you want to never have kids. Say it. If marriage is not in your cards. Say it. There is no shame in not wanting to have kids or marriage.

If you’re someone who asks these questions. Stop. They are never the outcome you want and it can be extremely discouraging when you have someone pry into your life like this. You are doing more damage then good. If a person wants to get married or they want to have kids you will know eventually. And if you did ask these questions before once is more then enough.

Before closing out this sensitive subject, I asked my boyfriend what he thought. He said this: “I think these questions are the same as finances, religion or politics, you just don’t ask”. I never really considered this to be true when it comes to this question but thinking about it from this perspective I don’t think I could agree more. I know for me personally having this question asked so many times over the years I tend to never mention this unless the person has mentioned it before.

Are you guilty of asking this question?
Have you had is asked of you and felt not so pleasant afterwards?

Let me know in the comments below!

-StaySeeJ

Why Celebrity Bloggers Grind My Gears

Life, Opinion, , , , , , , , , , ,

Now, Before you say,
“BuT StAcEy ThEy ArE CeLeBrItIeS”
Yes. I understand. I follow quite a few of them on social medias and I have no problem with that, This is one of the only things that I find to be super annoying when I see a celebrity I follow do this.

It really grinds my gears when celebrities are posting promotional items and they are far beyond the price point for the average consumer.

There I said it. I absolutely hate it. For example:
I follow a hockey wife on Instagram. I enjoy a lot of her content from the little things she does with her kids and the time spent juggling between the USA and Canada. What really is annoying though is she will promote all of these things. Mind you, she never normally uses the “#Ad” but she will write in different promo codes for people to use. Which is great! But when looking at the price of things before they even have a discount, I quickly discovered that the discount code would MAYBE pay for taxes. She even had this natural baby and child care line. I thought, oh hey let me check this out, I am a mom now after all! So I went to check it out, It was even a Canadian company. Well, I nearly fell over. The products that they were promoting were a few hundred dollars and the very least was about 70$ per item. There was no way I could justify spending that type of money on skin care and what have you for my son. Considering we are currently a one income house hold with one of my goals for 2021 being to gain some sort of an income financially. Even if I achieve my goal of 250-500 dollars per month financially I don’t even think that I could justify buying those.

And before, People are sitting there and saying in the comments that these people can buy what they want and blah blah blah. I understand that these people have a family income of tens of thousands if not more per month. From endorsements, to salary, to sponsorships and whatever else they are doing to bring money in. I just am a firm believe that if you are in a position of influence like you are trying to market yourself to the average housewife then putting things only for the higher income houses is just not something I am personally interested in. It will make me un-follow someone quickly.

I think this also plays into marketing as well. If you want to make the public see yourself as a brand that is marketed towards the typical housewife who stays at home looking after kids and has business ventures coming and going from time to time, marketing yourself with products that the average woman cannot afford is tough. I say this as I think to myself often that if I was to have sponsorships or endorsements come my way, I would like to think if this blog were to blow up with thousands of people following myself that I would make sure I was able to appeal to the general person who is reading this. Not someone who is making a 6 figure income. I would make sure that even if I was making money that the person who is at house taking care of children relying on just one income would be able to afford a purchase with little saving if they wanted to do so.

Obviously get sponsors and get endorsements from who you want even if you are catering to readers who are in the higher income household. However I would have a lot more respect if these people also offered a cheaper alternative. I see this a lot with clothing and it is one thing I do enjoy about the blog of this particular celebrity wife. I think it is great that they show a type of clothing that they have gotten and the cheaper price tag, or if people show an interest they even post the original and a knock off piece that looks the same. This is a great thing to see when influencers are trying to appeal to everyone.

Another thing that grinds my gears is a lot of these celebrity bloggers want to appeal to the general population. not other celebrities. I understand that they want to look professional as a blogger. I know I do. However, when they put photos on their blogs, they have perfect makeup, clothes, children, hair has not one strand in a different place. It is obvious that there is professional photography and sometimes they even mention it as well about having a photo shoot that day. The reality is that there is no perfect day. I know I am starting to try to include photos about my blog and relating to the posts however I know for a fact if I ever start taking photos that are perfect looking rest assured that I have not gotten a photographer. Not to mention my boyfriend has a pretty decent camera so if for some reason my phone camera photos are not good enough then I will start to ask him to take these photos.

Before I finish this, Don’t get me wrong. Whatever pays the bills you do it. But if you are a celebrity and you are trying to have this fake face about marketing to the population that is a lower income or a “normal” household than do so! If you want to market to fellow celebrities, DO THAT TOO! It just is extremely disheartening when you are looking at a celebrity who is claiming to be down to earth and living a “normal” affordable lifestyle and when you click on the product you would like to purchase with their discount code of affiliate link only to find the product so over priced that you no longer can afford it. It really makes you feel bad when you cant do something you had a little bit of excitement for.

If you could have any sponsorship or endorsement what would it be?
Is there any you would avoid? Or know that you would decline?

Let me know in the comments below!

-StaySeeJ