A Tale of Three Blogs

I originally started the "Trish and Alex" blog to document my oldest daughter's ascents of the 48 White Mountain Four Thousand Footers. Alex was five years old at the time and Sage was three. Being three, Sage was not yet a strong hiker, and I did not want to put any pressure on her to become one. She could not, at that time, accompany Alex on her original round of the 48 4Ks, so I went ahead and titled the blog "Trish and Alex Hike the 4000 Foot Whites."

I also used "TrishandAlex" as my username when I registered with the Mt. Washington Observatory Forums and Views From the Top, two prominent New England online hiking sites. We therefore became known as "Trish and Alex."

Now, however, there's a problem. Sage grew (funny how kids do that) and began hiking too. She's now just as strong as Alex was at her age. She too has hiking goals, she too likes being out there, and she too deserves acknowledgment for her accomplishments.

If you're a parent of more than one child, then you know you have to make things as fair as possible between your children. There's a blog about Alex, so there should be a blog about Sage. Hence Sage on the Trails of New Hampshire.

And what of the times when we all hike together? This, I suppose.

Three blogs. One for each kid, and one for when we all hike together (including our highpointing trips). I think this is fair. Each blog links to the other two; the set-up is very user-friendly.

Now, however, a conundrum. I've a book coming out in April 2012 about Alex's original quest for the NH48. Books and authors require a blog/webpage. Most authors have one blog/webpage. I have three.

Do I consolidate them into one giant blog? I'm very attached to both the girls' individual hiking blogs and I don't want to lose them. Perhaps I could leave each one as it is and post all future messages to Trish, Alex and Sage?

My instinct as a mother is to leave things the way they are. My business sense tells me to consolidate and make things as easy as possible for the public. Some folks don't like to click on links.

The marketing team at Crown, my publishing house, has not told me to change anything, by the way. Nevertheless, I've been thinking about this and would like to figure out the best course of action.

Stay tuned.