While there are certainly some universalities when it comes to having a baby, you’re also going to find a great deal of variation too. Raising a child in rural Japan is going to be quite different from raising a child in Paris. If you happen to be a single mother living on your own, your experience is also going to be different from someone who lives under the same roof as many extended family members. And if you are an Internet entrepreneur, professional blogger or “dot com mogul,” many aspects of having a baby are going to differ from the general population.
John can certainly attest to that and, now I’m a work-from-home father too, I’m starting to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of that too.
For instance, choosing a name for your child can be a pretty big deal. Some people pay homage to their ancestors, some draw inspiration from popular culture, and so on. Some people like more common names, whereas others decide to be as unique as possible. And when John and Sarah were thinking about a name for their daughter-to-be, John wanted to make sure he could secure her domain. And that’s why SallyChow.com exists today.
When our friend Stephen was expecting his first daughter, he went through a similar process for choosing a name. You can follow the amazing exploits of his little girl via Twitter at @lexifung. And in choosing the name for my daughter, I also wanted to secure her domain and Twitter handle. This factored into not only choosing her name, but also choosing the spelling. Today, she lives on the web at AdalynnKwan.com. The default “Hello World” post takes on a whole new meaning with these WordPress-powered blogs.
Many of you read John Chow dot Com for advice about how to make money online, but it’s also about the “Dot Com Lifestyle.” It’s about having that freedom of time and location, so you can lead your life without the burdening shackles of a 9-to-5. Parents who are work-at-home Internet entrepreneurs will have a different kind of mindset than those who hold more conventional kinds of jobs. This guiding philosophy, just like your morals and opinions, gets passed on to your children too.
So, what does this mean? For Sally, the norm is to have both parents at home full time, rather than having one parent or the other leave the home for more than eight hours each day. For Sally, the norm is to drop everything and go to Sea World for the day. And when little Sally Chow grows up, her ambition may not be to apply for a more traditional office job and work her way up the corporate ladder. She may not really “get” the idea of a standard 40-hour work week. Instead, looking to how her dad leads his life, Sally may expect to work from home too. She’ll see the “dot com lifestyle” as the norm.
All of our daughters — Sally, Lexi and Adalynn — will have a different kind of mindset. They’ll all enjoy having fun and playing like other kids, but as they get older, they may also look to how their hobbies and interests can also help them earn some passive income. And, as contradictory as it may sound, they’ll also come to understand that money doesn’t buy happiness either. It’s about the Dot Com Lifestyle, right from the moment they emerge from the womb.