Why I don't have a blogroll or comment on blogs much

I have anxiety about reading and commenting on blogs. 

It's proper manners in the blogosphere to check out someone's blog when they comment on yours and to comment back.  At least, I know that was proper etiquette back when I used to care about stuff like that.  Is that still the way things are done?

And by "care about stuff like that" I mean that I used to care about having a well-read blog. Partly because it was attached to my business and I wanted to drive traffic to my website via my blog.  But I don't care about being popular anymore so I stopped paying attention to all the blogging rules and conferences and stuff.  I don't want to give away free stuff. I don't want to do reviews. I don't really care about making money from my blog. So, I have no real incentive to keep up on the business side of blogging nor do I have any incentive to be polite...

...except for all the anxiety I have about being polite! I feel terrible if someone adds me to their blogroll and I just cannot in good conscience reciprocate because they're blog is boring or for whatever reason I don't actually read it.  I am a very, very honest person and I also hate to hurt people's feelings, which leaves me in a pickle.

So, to eliminate the chance of hurting any individual's feelings, I decided to hurt everyone's feelings. I got rid of my blogroll a long time ago. If you want to add me to your blogroll, that's really lovely and I thank you so much, but I'm not reciprocating just to be nice. It feels like lying to me. And that makes me feel skeevy all over.  I have my Daily Gratitudes blogroll and if you want to be added to it, all you have to do is take up the Daily Gratitudes habit. You don't even need to plug my button. 

And if I have to read and comment on all the blogs of people who read mine, then I would never do anything besides read and comment on blogs. I don't even get that many comments compared to a lot of bloggers but I already find it overwhelming.

I'm one of those perfectionsists who doesn't do anything at all if she can't do it perfectly. (And I'm working on that. I even bought a book.) So, lately, I haven't even been reading the blogs of my friends.  I feel so overwhelmed with all their posts. To write on my own blog, as well as raise my kids and maintain my marriage and friendships, I have little time for reading and commenting on blogs. I never look at my RSS reader because it feels like one big to-do list and I have enough of those in my head.

So, I just wanted to say to everyone who reads what I write and comments (or not) that you may very well have the best blog ever. You may even be a real life friend of mine whose blog I haven't been reading regularly. Please don't take it personally. I tend to read blogs all in one shot, here and there. I will get caught up on 10 posts at once. It's just the idea of reading tens of blogs regularly, even if I don't comment... it makes me panic.

Please don't comment thinking that I'll then check out your blog and comment back or add you to my blogroll and then feel hurt when I don't. I'm not into the networking aspect of blogging at all. I don't do things to boost my numbers and I don't think you should either. Read me if you like what I write. That's all. Please, let that be all because anything else gives me anxiety and makes me feel guilty! :-)

Daily Gratitudes

1. Jude.
2. Louise.
3. John.
4. Katie.
5. Julie.