Blogging Baby Talks introduces you to the movers and shakers in the parenting world. Every week Blogging Baby will interview another blogger, writer, entrepreneur, artist, or other fascinating person in a five-question format. If there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, let us know!

Carrie Richmond has been journaling online since way back in the twentieth century, putting her life out there for the world to see at RedHairedGirl.com. You might call her one of the original "mommy bloggers." Through her journal she chronicled her struggles with fertility issues, her pregnancies, her homebirths, and now her life as a parent of four-year-old Sam and 8-months-old Gabe. We talked with Carrie about her journal and weblog, and about being a parent online.

Well, I was working what had to be the most boring, useless job I've ever had, and that's saying something, considering that I worked as an assembly-line ice cream cone packager (think Lucille Ball in the candy factory). I had a receptionist-type position with a project-management company, and I had quite a lot of downtime, just waiting for the phone to ring so I could answer it and shuttle the caller on his way. (My other main job requirement was buying doughnuts for training seminars.) With my free time, I decided to teach myself HTML, and I made a rather barebones "this is my life" style site.

At the same time, my husband and I were mulling over the issue of trying to expand our family. To that end, I joined a listserv for women either trying to conceive or thinking about it. On that listserv, I ran into a couple of women who were actively keeping online journals, and I was quite intrigued. I started reading about their lives, following their links to other journals - it was actually very much a booming hobby, even back then; diarist.net has been going since 1998, keeping a registry and online journal prompts, advice, and more. I suppose it was inevitable that I would decide to try my own hand at journaling online; the surprising thing, at least for me, was that I never stopped.

2. Now in your seventh year of your journal, what keeps you committed to writing and publishing your thoughts?
It's a combination of two things, now: the audience and my kids. To address the latter, I've come to treasure the things I've written during my sons' early days; whenever I'm noticing something with my infant, Gabe, such as how he hoots when he fusses or how he doesn't like to mouth much except his own hands, I can easily go back and see that Sam, my firstborn, did the same things. It's like a dynamic baby book in that way, constantly changing and evolving into the story of our lives as a family. How could I give up keeping that?

At the same time, it's more than just a baby book that sits on a shelf for my eyes alone. When I started writing, people started reading, and that was a little bit unnerving, but at the same time it was pretty flattering and a bit intriguing. My husband and I actively started trying to conceive, and suddenly I had a whole cheering section sending me support, especially as time passed and we went through our difficulties with fertility issues. Other women who had been down that path sent me emails, commiserating and telling me their stories; some of those women became good friends. This was before fertilityfriend.com became so popular, before the rise of the "TTC blog." The fact that I was posting my cycle charts online raised no few eyebrows, but it was worth it when I consider the number of people I met and can now claim as friends.

Once Sam was born, of course, even more people were reading, and I heard from even more well-wishers and friendly people. It's not just about ego-stroking; especially with the later addition of a companion weblog to the more detailed journal, my site has provided me with a way to discuss everything from child-rearing issues to kitchen problems to the more rare news debate. I recently moved several states away, landing in a place where I knew absolutely nobody and had no contacts; the journal has helped keep me sane by not only keeping me plugged into my former support network, but actually helping me meet new people here. ("Hey! You're moving to my neck of the woods!") That's just amazing. This journal has become my most valued possession.

3. What do you find are the best and worst parts of putting it all out there" - exposing your life and thoughts and images for the world to see?
Well, I've mentioned a few of the reasons why I love doing it. I have to say, sometimes I wonder what could have possessed me from the beginning, using my real name, pictures, honest details, etc. In the end, though, I conclude that this kind of openness is just me. I've never been good at hiding; I always lost at poker. If I'd gone into this project with the idea to hold back some of my cards - to use a pseudonym, hide my location, be more cryptic - the whole thing probably would have lost its charm a long time ago, and I likely would have quit early on.

On the other hand, a friend of mine who also keeps an online presence recently had a brush with a pedophile at a photo-sharing site; he bookmarked a few pictures of her young son for what was obviously unwholesome in nature. That's the kind of happening that really shakes you and makes you wonder whether you shouldn't yank the whole thing down, or at least hide it behind a password. Thus far, the good has far outweighed the bad for me, though.

4. You often talk about your parenting style on your site. Why do you think topics such as attachment parenting are such hot buttons among blogging parents and parenting forums?
Honestly, I think guilt plays a large part of it, and no, I'm not saying that people who don't parent a certain way ought to be feeling guilty. What I mean is that from the moment we pee on the stick, we all start obsessing about what we should and should not do, and any time we fall short of the ideal that we set for ourselves, the guilt starts piling up. We get frustrated, and we get defensive. Add to that the fact that sanctimony and outright trolling is rampant in places where parenting is discussed, perhaps both stemming from and feeding on that guilt, and you've got a veritable greenhouse for backbiting, viciousness, and finger-pointing.

I think attachment parenting gets such an especially hard rap because it's misunderstood. Even though it's really not this way, people perceive it to be a laundry list of things one has to do to be a "good AP mommy": one must use a sling, one must breastfeed for an extended period, one must raise her kid on homemade organic granola and wheat germ. Fall short of any step, or fail to check off any boxes, and you've got somebody waiting to point a finger and say, "Ah-hah!" Or at least the people who feel this way about their parenting will think somebody's waiting with the pointed finger, and they might very well try to preemptively attack. It's rotten.

Attachment parenting is, of course, no checklist of things one needs to do. It's about fostering attachment between parent and child, plain and simple. Breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and slinging are all just tools - valuable, yes, but just tools - to help a mother or father along his or her way; they're not the parenting style by themselves, and I've known attachment parents who did none of them and still managed to have the most solid, attached relationship they could with their kids. Sadly, other people on some of those forums in question would probably jump down their throats before ever getting to know the whole story. More than a few of my friends have fled the online parenting world entirely because of it.

5. When your sons are older, what will you teach them about journaling (online or otherwise)?
Well, several of my friends who have older kids have hooked their children up with online diaries of their own, and when I was a youth librarian I even taught a web design class for young adults in which I touched on keeping journals online. I think having a written record of one's thoughts can be a wonderful tool, whether it's a sort of "core dump" in which a person simply purges his mind onto paper, or whether it's a more organized collection of personal essays. I want my boys to know that, first, it's not just a "girl thing" (don't get me started on how books, reading, and writing are perceived so heavily as a female's domain!), and, second, that if they decide to give it a shot, there's no right or wrong way to do it.

I also want them to know that it's theirs, and that it can be as private as they want it. I won't go reading unless they specifically ask me. I do worry about them sharing too much information with the world online, so to that end, I'll discourage them from having much of an online presence until they're old enough to have at least some understanding of the dangers out there, why they shouldn't give out their address or phone number, and so on. It's a tough issue; I want them to feel the same freedom I do, but I want to keep them safe, too.