Being in PR and often working with companies that target moms and families, I’ve done my fair share of work with mom bloggers. Whether it’s providing a product to review, a giveaway, or simply building a relationship, I’ve worked with Mom bloggers on quite a few occasions.

Because we’re strategic with our blogger outreach, including researching, targeting and pitching them accordingly as you would with any media (PR 101 anyone?), I can’t recall an incident when I’ve gotten any negative reaction or feedback from the bloggers. I have noticed, however, that recently there have been more and more mom bloggers out there. Some bloggers are being paid. Some are not. More and more of them are providing product reviews and even posting “PR info” on their website to provide tips for PR pros on how to get in touch with them.

So when I saw this posted last week in MomDot, one of the mom sites I’ve interacted with before, I can’t say wasn’t surprised:

MomDot Encourages Mom Bloggers to Join PR Blackout Challenge: From August 10-16, the PR Blackout campaign will encourage mom bloggers to go back to basics.

On Friday Night Live this week we dissected and discussed what we are affectionately calling “bloggy burnout.’ After a lengthy 90 minute conversation with bloggers around the web, we came to one conclusion:

Mom Bloggers are simply doing too much.

With the allure of giveaways, reviews, and blog trips, Mom Bloggers have turned from what they love the most, their family, into working directly as public relations for their captive audience. It boils down to knowing your worth and then standing up for it.

While we adore many of our fabulous PR reps and treat them like bloggy friends, our site, and many others, are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of product requests each year resulting in massive obligations and deadline stress equivalent to what the General Motors CEO must feel every time he drives into work. We watch our blog friends strive for the next big review or the next big giveaway, but all the while practically losing

MomDot is challenging bloggers to participate for one week in August in a PR BLACKOUT challenge where you do not blog ANY giveaways, ANY reviews, and Zero press releases. In fact, we dont want you to talk to PR at ALL that whole week.  We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week.

We will host a linky during that week for you to link up every post you do. We will also provide some topic suggestions for each day of the week to get your blog blood flowing again.

We feel this is an important challenge to show mom bloggers that what they are doing, the stress they feel, the deadlines, the time away from their family, it has to be worth it. So grab the picture, link to MomDot for PR BLACKOUT week and COMMIT to blogging for YOU and about you for one week this year.

Let us know if you will be participating along side us. We have scheduled it far enough in advance for you to wrap up all your current obligations and look forward to meeting more of our audience, sharing more of our personal selves, and having the TIME to be much more involved with our own community.

~Trisha

I’m not surprised about the burnout. After all, these bloggers ARE moms, which on its own is a full time job. I WAS surprised, however, about the call to avoid PR pros. Do we really contribute to the burnout? Or is blogging in itself becoming too laborsome a task for many? I’ve always felt that PR people and mom bloggers were in some sort of symbiotic relationship — more specifically, a mutually beneficial relationship. We provide a benefit (products to review, prizes for contests, new information for their readers) for them, and they in turn help us out (promoting our products and providing an honest and impartial mom’s review).

What are your thoughts — Do you think many mom bloggers will participate? What implications does this have for the future of the relationship between mom bloggers and PR pros? What can PR people do to ensure the relationship remains a positive one and help prevent future burnout?