By Donna L. Robinson 

Blogging seemed like an easily accessible and highly personal creative outlet when Scott Tennant started it back in 2011, claiming it has always been a nice change of pace from the corporate writing he did every day at work.  His blogs about his family eventually turned into a book called “5 Kids, 1 Wife,” which he just published recently. 

Tennant’s blog posting cadence has varied widely through the years. There was a nine-month period in 2021 when he blogged every single day, but over time he decided three per week felt like a happy medium for him.

When asked if he ever ran out of ideas to blog about, Tennant replied, “Every writer has times when inspiration is tough to come by. Whenever I start to run out of ideas, I go back to everyday life and the things that make me laugh, make me cry, or make me think.  That’s usually a pretty reliable source of blog ideas. When I started compiling the list of posts for the book, I had more than 850 from which to choose.  It took several weeks to narrow the list from an initial 200 candidates to the 51 that eventually made it into the book.”

His favorite blog was as he shared, “I’ve always liked a post I wrote in 2012 called ‘Our New Thousand-Dollar Dishwasher.’  It tells the story of a dishwasher we bought and I think it captures the spirit of the blog and the book: Taking the seemingly mundane and discovering what’s funny and even profound about it.”

Personal family stuff has been a mainstay in his blogs and thankfully no complaints were made by family members.  “Any time I question whether something might be embarrassing to anyone in the family, I ask them about it first.  Most of the time, the embarrassing stuff I write is about myself,” says Tennant. 

He says he grew up on the “mean streets” of Harding Drive in Wickliffe, a neighborhood with a lot of kids.  He is the youngest of four kids and says he was “gloriously spoiled” by his parents and siblings. 

Tennant met his wife, Terry, in the band room at Wickliffe High School in 1986.  “We dated for six years before we married in 1992—31 years ago.  I’ve found that two of the most important things for a successful marriage are to make sure you always communicate and make sure you always laugh together.  Do that and the rest will take care of itself.” He continued, saying that the secret to a happy marriage is, “It can’t be about YOU…that extends for life.”  

His keys to raising his five children are, “It may be cliché, but one of the most important things you can do as a parent is to give the gift of your time.  The time you spend with your kids, individually and as a family, is what they will remember most when they’re older.”

“As far as doing anything differently, it’s easy when you’re married with a large, growing family to always be on the go and checking things off the to-do list.  I wish I would have learned to relax more back in my 20s and 30s, because now I’m in my 50s and I’m still trying to figure out how to do it,” he adds.

Tennant has had many past writing experiences, starting his career as a sports journalist for the local daily newspapers.  From there he moved into technical writing, trade journalism, and finally into corporate communications, which is what he’s done since 1999. 

He loves his role as a public address announcer and shared why.  “I had often been told I had a voice for announcing, so when the opportunity to become the announcer for the Wickliffe Swing Band came up in 2014, I jumped on it.  In the years since, I’ve also become the voice of Wickliffe Blue Devil football, soccer, volleyball and basketball, as well as announcing various sports for Cleveland State University, Lake Erie College, University School, Perry, Riverside, Mayfield and Brush high schools,” says Tennant. 

He is also a passionate musician as well, saying, “I’ve played the saxophone for more than 40 years and still get to play fairly regularly at our church.  In college I was in a two-man band with my Wickliffe High School classmate Nathan Woods, and we recorded an album called ‘Sandlot Tunes.’”

Tennant was asked, speaking straight from the heart, what does marriage/children/family mean to him, and he concluded with, “I thought about this a lot as I was putting the book together.  There are lots of directions our lives can go, depending on external circumstances and the decisions we make along the way.  I could have ended up in a very different situation, but through the grace of God I have a wonderful wife and amazing children.  I’m grateful for it every day.”