Currently (2019):

This is going to be one of those blog posts where I talk about something here that you won’t necessarily hear me talk about on YouTube. I don’t know if I will be able to explain this without someone getting offended or thinking that I am specifically targeting them, but I will try to be as delicate about this subject as possible which is – my time.

For some reason (it has always been this way even before I started YouTube), people assume that if you are a stay-at-home mom you sit around and do nothing all day. I have even been called lazy for not working outside the home. This comes from a place of ignorance, I realize that. I also know that I am anything but lazy, so the assumption bothered me, but I didn’t take it to heart because I know what I do.

Now that my occupation is a Content Creator for YouTube and I work from home, I believe the same assumptions are there. Maybe people don’t necessarily think I am lazy, but they believe that I don’t do anything all day. I think they believe that I am sitting around waiting for comments, messages, emails, Tweets, etc. I can assure you that this could not be further from the truth. I am busy from the time I get up in the morning until Kevin and I watch TV at night, usually around 8PM.

For years after creating a YouTube page, I answered each and every comment. I would do my normal YouTube work during the day and then at night, I would answer comments. It went from taking an hour to taking an average of three hours every night. This meant that I had no time away from work at all and I was getting burned out. Instead of looking forward to reading the comments, I started dreading them because I knew that I had to answer each one.

I told Kevin how I was feelings and he explained to me that there was no need for me to answer each comment. He said that none of the people he watches answers comments because they would be doing it all day and never have time for anything else.

I considered what he was saying for about a week and then finally decided that something had to be done, so I started clicking the heart icon under each comment. By doing this, it indicates that I have read the comment without typing anything myself. When someone asks a question or tells me they are a new subscriber, I try to always answer them and thank them. I love reading the comments. I appreciate every single comment and person who takes time out of their day to say something.

Once I started clicking on the heart icon, I did notice that some people either stopped watching the videos or they wouldn’t comment any longer. In other words, if they were not getting one-on-one time, they wanted no part of my channel and that is fine. I think if they thought about it, they would realize that it just wasn’t working for my mental state. Ultimately, I felt a huge burden had been lifted once I accepted the fact that I couldn’t answer every single person. That was how I set myself free about a year ago.

Very recently, I set myself free again in another way. I turned off messaging on my Tami Dunn YouTube Facebook page. I will say it again and I mean it with all of my heart; I love receiving messages, hearing about new foods and receiving recommendations, but I cannot reply to every single one. Some people want to send multiple messages back and forth daily and I just don’t have time to do that. Sometimes if I don’t respond quickly enough, they think I am ignoring them. I’m not, but I don’t have time to respond to messages daily. I am not being mean at all. I really do care what people have to say, but think about it, if 50 people message me each day and expect a response, it will take me all day just to take care of those messages, not to mention reading comments on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and emails. And yes, I get email too. Again, I love them and I try to reply to every one, but I don’t know how long I will be able to keep that up either.

If you are reading this and you follow my Tami Dunn YouTube Facebook page, just know that you can leave a public comment and I will see it, read it and appreciate it, but I can no longer keep up with the personal messages without offending someone. I had to set myself free for me to be happy.

The Past: February 25, 2003

Another Snow Day

Another snow day for the kiddies! At this rate, they won’t have any days left for spring break. Kevin still went to work. He said that once he got out of our neighborhood, the roads were fine. He said that if the roads had been salted last night, we might have had school today. It seems like the road crews would get out there more. I remember when we moved to this neighborhood almost seven years ago. Our street was one of the first ones to get salted or plowed. We were so impressed! I guess the importance of certain roads has been shifted. What can you do?

Something so funny happened tonight. The doorbell rang while I was cooking dinner so Andrew looked out the peephole to see who it was. He informed me that it was “some old man, but he’s looking the other way”. So, I looked out the peephole to see if I knew this person. When the “old man” turned around I saw that it was my dad standing there! I opened the door and told him what his favorite grandson had said. The look on his face was priceless! There aren’t many things that surprise my dad – this did! I’m sure that he is throwing a fit about this to my mom right now. Sorry dad! It had to be told!