Not many blogs get a birthday party.  But mine did.  Jim came                                            home with cupcakes and a card.  OK, ok.  We look for any excuse to buy a cupcake, but still.  He definitely got brownie points for that.  Or cupcake points I suppose.

Some of you know that for the past couple of weeks I have become a bit “overly concerned” about some random goals I had set for myself.  OK, maybe it was more than “a bit.”  I couldn’t figure out why I was putting so much pressure on myself to meet these goals.  No one made me set them.  They were just numbers I chose.  Nothing was going to happen if I didn’t make it.  And nothing was going to happen if I did.  I couldn’t figure out why I cared so much.  

But now I do know why.

The goals I set were:

1. > 1,000 Facebook Fans
2. > 1,000 Twitter Followers
3. < 100,000 US Alexa Rank

I became pretty obsessed with these numbers.  Just these three.  I didn’t care about the numbers for Pinterest, Google+, Bloglovin’ or any of the other 247 social media sites out there.  I didn’t even care about my number of email subscribers (which is arguably the most important).   But why?

A couple of weeks ago, it was pretty obvious that #1 was not reachable.  I was way more bummed about it than I should be.  But why?

With only a few days left, I decided I couldn’t throw in the towel.  I pulled out all the stops and asked for all the favors possible in a last-ditch effort.  I just HAD to get there.  But why?

My blogging buddies and real life friends came out in droves to share my page with their followers and friends.

And I made it!  The moment I hit 1,000 I immediately went running to my kids to tell them.  And THAT was the moment I realized why it mattered so much.

It was the look on their faces.

I spend so much of my time feeling guilty over being the “sick Mom.”  The Mom that my kids hear talking about doctor’s appointments and naps and aches and pains.  Others get to see the well-rested out-in-public me but my kids have to see the Mom that comes home exhausted.  I worry that one day their childhood memories of me will consist of only that.

They never got to see the businesswoman me or the musician me or the anything-that-would-make-them-proud-of-me me.  Until Momopolize.  They think the blogger me is pretty darn cool.

Facebook fans impress them.  Having more Twitter followers than them impresses them.  Being ranked in the top 100,000 out of the 650,000,000 websites that exist in the world impresses them (Alexa ranks all websites, not just blogs.  Google, Facebook, Amazon and the like are in the top 10.).  Yeah, I really have no idea if that is the actual number of websites but that was the number I saw most often in a search and it sounds good to tell them I’m in the top .01%-ish.

So those numbers weren’t important to me because I want to achieve fame and fortune (well, a little fortune would be nice).  It wasn’t to get that elusive book deal or attract bigger advertisers (well, yeah that would be nice too.).

Those numbers were important because for that moment I wasn’t sick Mom.  I wasn’t even average Mom.  In their eyes I was famous Mom.  And maybe THAT will be what stays in their memory.

I mean, I KNOW those numbers don’t really mean all that much.  I know of widely successful blogs that don’t even have a Twitter account.  And others that have a huge Facebook following but only a few of those fans ever click on their blog posts.  And my Alexa rank just shows me there must be a whole heck of a lot of websites that never ever ever get viewed.  Like, ever!  (You’re welcome for the Taylor Swift song that is now stuck in your head.)

But – shhhhhhhh – don’t tell my kids any of that.  Let me be famous Mom for just a little longer.

Oh, and in case you are as easily impressed as my kids, when I started writing this my numbers were:

1. 1,047 Facebook Fans
2. 1,772 Twitter Followers
3. 114,117 US Alexa Rank (I didn’t quite make it under 100,000 but we are just going to gloss over that for now and celebrate, k?)

And my goal for the coming year?  To Momopolize the entire Blogiverse!!

(Or at least make my kids think I do.)

<insert evil laugh and cue world domination music>

___

P.S. My next post will be more about my first year of blogging and the wonderful community that is out there, including a shout out to those who answered my plea for help on Facebook.  (I intended to include that list in this post but have to leave for an appointment for a sick kitty, sorry!)

P.P.S. For those who have been around for a while, you know that 47 is my favorite number (Always has been.  No idea why.).  Anytime I talk about any kind of numbers, I will add 47 to the end.  When I saw my Facebook number was ACTUALLY 1,047 it was like a blog birthday gift.  I guess I’m easily impressed also…