Top Ten Reasons Nanas Blog

The fastest growing demographic when it comes to social networking and blogging are what I refer to as “Nana Bloggers” — grandmothers 50-plus.  That’s me, an over-50 nana of two, and I just love to blog.  Not all my friends blog as often or as much as I do.  “I just don’t know what to blog about,” they say.  My answer to them is, “Write what you know. When you get together with all your girlfriends what do you talk about?” In case you don’t know what women my age talk about, I’ll tell you.  Then the next time you are stuck for a topic, just refer to this list.

What Nana Bloggers Know Best …

10.  Causes. Women my age have sat through way too many PTA meetings.  We have volunteered countless, thankless hours at schools, and helped our kids persuade our friends and neighbors to buy everything from Girl Scout cookies to overpriced candles. At this stage in our lives we have a little more time and can afford to give of our time and talents to organizations that depend on volunteers to help others.  Pick one – Haitian relief, the Red Cross, Save the Children, World Vision, Compassion, the environment. Whatever you care about, blog about it.

9.  Men. Yes, they are from Mars. They think PMS is a television channel.  They don’t understand why women prefer Sleepless in Seattle to The Terminator or Rambo.  Young boys are made of frogs, snails and puppy dog’s tails.  Teenage boys are made of dreams of teenage girls, pizza and trucks.  Real men are made of Old Spice and M&Ms – they’re hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and they melt in a woman’s arms.  Behind every successful Grandpa there’s a Nana who helped him get there.  Where would they be without us?

8.  Kids. We push them in baby carriages, push them to join play groups, push them to get into the best schools, push them out of the house and into college, sometimes they boomerang and come back to us so we push them back out of the house… again, we push them into marriage and finally, we push them to give us grandchildren.  Then the mom pushes the baby out and, voila, we start all over again.

7. Medication. Ailments, we got ‘em: constipation, heart burn, heart attacks, cataracts, cholesterol, Geritol, colonoscopies, mammograms, menopause, migraines, hypertension, depression, diarrhea, bunions, root canals, insomnia, acupuncture, arthritis, bursitis, and colitis.  Been there, done that.  Nanas can give advice, loan you pills, and recommend a doctor, a hospital, a procedure, a surgeon.  Whatever malady you have had Nanas have either had it, know someone who has or know someone who’s going to get it any day now.  If someone in the family is sick don’t call the doctor first — call Nana.  She’ll tell you what to do (and you won’t even need your insurance card).

6.  Politics. Let’s face it: when it comes to politics the Nana Generation has seen it all. We’ve lived through decades of people who never should have been in politics but somehow ended up there.  We’ve had Presidents who were actors and adulterers. Presidents who thought it was okay to spy on the opposing party, and Presidents whose mouths needed to be washed out with soap.  Politics and politicians are fun to blog about because usually government is packed with very smart people who do really stupid things.

5.  Sports. You think men are the only ones who can blog about sports?  Think again.  We don’t wear jock straps but we sure suffer with the jocks.  By the time a woman is my age she has endured enough little league, grade school, high school and college basketball ballgames that she could referee better than most paid officials from mid-court, using only a pair of binoculars (though I can’t run up and down a court without having a heart attack) and a whistle (the hearing isn’t what it used to be, either).

4.  Food. Even women who don’t cook love food and often get more excited over going to a 5-star restaurant than they do from a blue-light special at K-Mart.  Nanas love bargains but they love good food even more.  Especially when someone else does the cooking.  And you don’t need to be Julia Child to be a nana food blogger – you just need to be hungry.

3.  Decorating. Home improvements are fun to talk about because what starts out as a small project always morphs into a whole-house makeover.  Decorating comes natural for women with Martha Stewart genes but the rest of us have to get our ideas out of magazines or off Pinterest.

2.  All women talk about the Big Three: boobs, butt and belly.  Whenever a group of women get together it’s just a matter of time before they discuss body parts.  They talk about the need and cost to fix them, and whether or not it’s worth it.  They compare whose are the biggest or sag the most.  Whose is wider or sticks out more.  It never ends.  No matter what we look like, we are never, ever satisfied.  Which is why cosmetic surgery appears to be one of the few truly recession-proof industries.

1.  And the number one thing Nanas can blog about better than anyone else: the grandkids (of course). If you didn’t guess that one, you obviously haven’t seen pictures of my granddaughters.  They are the most beautiful, smartest, most talented children in the universe.  The only other children as beautiful as they are have not been born yet. They are my future grandchildren — and I can’t wait to be their nana, too!