About This Site
Tanis Miller started blogging February 2006, four months after the sudden death of her youngest son, Shale. After googling the words ‘mom’ and ‘grief’, Tanis stumbled onto the world of blogging and it wasn’t long before she decided to make the leap from lurker to author.
For seven years Tanis could be found blogging at Attack of the Redneck Mommy. Her blog was a humorous and insightful look at the joys of parenting, the delights of marriage and the heartbreak of losing a child. Her blog has been featured on CNN, The Globe and Mail and in a variety of Canadian daily newspapers. Attack of the Redneck Mommy™ has repeatedly been named as one of Babble's top mom blogs and has won the Best Canadian Blog award in the 2011, 2010 and 2008 Bloggies, earning her a spot in the Bloggie Hall of Fame.
Tanis continues to spread her brand of humour and honesty here on Tanis Miller only this time she isn't pretending to be 50 feet tall while doing it.
On the Subject of Me
Tanis Miller always wanted to be a prom queen.
That didn’t work out for her for a variety of reasons, such as the fact she’s Canadian and they don’t have proms up in the frozen tundra, they have grads. There may have also been a small issue of living the entirety of her high school years in the isolated industrial wing of a huge urban high school where she walked around in her slippers while carrying around a notebook and refusing to make eye contact with the general student body. The only people who knew she existed were the ones who mocked her slippers and the stoners who tried to steal them.
Since high school was a complete and utter bust, Tanis soothed her ravaged self esteem in the back seat of a farm boy’s car, only to learn soon after what the definition of a shot gun wedding really is. Tanis likes to take pride in the fact that while she may have walked down the aisle pregnant and tugging another child behind her in a wagon, at least she can proudly say her children all have the same baby daddy.
Once Tanis conquered the world of child rearing and marriage she moved on to tackle her post secondary education where she accrued some fancy papers with her name on them and a really big student loan bill. That fancy education couldn’t land her a job if her life depended on it but did prepare her for real life and the birth of her third child, who was born severely disabled.
Tanis is now a fierce advocate for children with disabilities and has no problem standing in front of 1500 people and lecturing them not to use the R-word.
Life later kicked Tanis (and her entire family) in the arse when her son died but since then they have adjusted to the mantle of grief they all wear and have moved on to adopt a special little boy after what had to be the world’s worst longest adoption attempt ever.
Nowadays, Tanis lives with her family on an acreage in the middle of Nowhereville, Alberta, Canada and spends her time trying to remember that one joy really can scatter a hundred griefs.
FURTHERMORE
Tanis not only spends her time wishing she was Erma Bombeck here on this blog, but she also occasionally appears on television and on the radio where she spends an embarrassing amount of time going “Ummm.” Her husband couldn’t be more proud of her.
For a full list of press, media mentions and awards accrued over the years, click here.
To read about her beautiful angel boy and his story, click on Shale’s picture.
