I skipped a few days of blogging, which probably should have been recaps of the day after BlogHer ended. Instead, I spent these days sightseeing with my husband in NYC, traveling back to DFW, and going back to work yesterday (ugh).

My thoughts about BlogHer:

It was great to see and hear from other “green” bloggers. Especially the clothdiapering mamas!

The amount of swag was NOT exaggerated. This brings up the interesting point that apparently very large companies believe in the influence of female bloggers enough to give away a LOT of free full-size product in hopes of creating future customers. However, they did not believe in us enough to send representatives who actually knew anything about the companies and the products. A good percentage of the reps in the expo hall were unable to answer most of our challenges and questions. It’s like they expect us to just buy their product and shut up about it. Not likely.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, while I do love that women bloggers tend to really examine their product and company choices conscientiously, I also got a little sick of everyone getting offended by SOMETHING. Offended by Scholastic offering a tour during panels, offended by formula samples in the swag bags, just mad, mad, mad about anything. I am all for holding companies accountable (I spoke to Pillsbury, for what little good that did, and I do understand the Nestle boycott), but I am sick of people taking free stuff from companies and then complaining about it for whatever reason.

See, I just wrote an opinion. Which I am sure people could get mad about. But that is what I think. And if I learned anything from BlogHer, it is that I should be more vocal and use my power.

Can I use it to say, “Stop your whining, you got a free full-size Mr. Potato Head in your swag bag!”?