Lately, my three-year-old has been having growing pains. Literal ones, yes. But the figurative ones are what have struck me more. “Mommy, I want to be a baby again,” she says periodically.
Oh, honey. I feel your pain.
Being responsible for oneself and one’s actions is hard. We see grownups struggle with that all the time. And they’re supposed to have this all figured out, right?
Wrong. We’re all just muddling through. That’s why self-help books are so popular. “This book holds the key to your problem,” is basically all you need in a blurb. I jest. But only slightly.
And while I don’t find myself wishing I was a baby, like my daughter, lately I do find myself sometimes wishing I was not responsible for so very many things.
My day starts with my daughter giving me a Princess Anna-like wake-up call, “Mommy, look, the sun’s awake. We need to be awake, too.” Unless the cats haven’t given me their “Good god, woman, we’re starving here.” wake-up call first. Or concurrent with it, at any rate.
Then it’s get her ready, get me ready, placate the cats, and off to preschool we go. Once I arrive at work, I have a long day filled with decisions, decisions, decisions. Then, it’s home to figure out dinner, feed the cats, play with the kid, get her off to bed, address any issues like laundry, etc., interact with the spouse, and collapse after a couple hours in front of the TV.
Six hours of sleep, then repeat.
It feels as if someone needs something from me every minute of my waking life.
So, why am I whining about this to you, dear reader? Well, because it turns out I need something from you.
You see, the reason I feel overwhelmed with decisions these days (I mean, other than the whole working mom thing) is that we’re completely overhauling the WMG website. That’s right, this very site.
I need to oversee it all, from the most minute details of font choice and color scheme, to the meta level of site maps and overall functionality.
Part of that is because I’m a Type A perfectionist. Part of it is because I’m ultimately responsible for it all. And then, of course, there’s the whole “it’s my job” thing.
We’ll start launching the changes in March. But here’s where you come in.
As I’m working with the team on all of these decisions, I’d like to know what you’d like to see. What parts of the site do you use regularly? What would you like to see that we don’t have right now? What is the link you use most often on a site?
As I’ve said before, I’ve always believed that the customer drives a business model. Maybe it’s my journalism background, but I believe in the power of public opinion.
So, now’s your chance to be part of the process. We’d love to hear from you.
And keep an eye out for those changes to the website. I’ll be eager to hear what you think of that, too.
In the meantime, I’ll be counting the days until the launch. Hopefully, I won’t wind up babbling like a baby about modules and toggles and… Oops, too late <grin>.
Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.