This poor old blog.

When I first started writing DorkyMum back in 2011, I posted on it three or four times a week. Then, as life became busier, that became three or four times a month, Now, a decade and a half on, it’s lucky if it sees some action three times a year.

Blogging in the early days had a real sense of community. There are children all over the UK who I feel like I know, even though I’ve never met them. Us ‘mum bloggers’ commented regularly on each other’s posts. We subscribed, we shared, we compiled blog rolls and linkys, and then once or twice a year we gathered for champagne and selfies at conferences and award ceremonies.

There is very little of that left now. A few people have hung on and worked hard on their post-parenting niche – vegan recipes, kids counselling and life coaching, photography, arts and crafts – but most folk have abandoned their blogs entirely. There are certainly not many of us still sharing the mundane, everyday stories of our lives.

For me – as for all of those other bloggers – there are good reasons for that. Many of us wrote as a creative outlet when our kids were very young. We churned out 800 words in nap time, or wrote on our phones in the café at soft play. Now we now have full or part-time jobs, less time to spare, and kids who are teens not toddlers. Quite understandably, not many of those teens are comfortable with every detail of their lives being shared.

There’s also the fact that social media has nibbled away at many of the things I used to post here. Before it became ‘Stories from an Island Home’ my tagline used to be ‘parenting, politics, photography… and anything else that takes my fancy’.

These days, most of my parenting and family news goes on Facebook, my photos go on Instagram, and my political grumbles go on Bluesky (or across the dinner table at DorkyDad). That doesn’t leave much for the blog, which is why over the last few years it has mainly been about holidays and medical emergencies.

Like my paper desk diary, my handwritten to-do lists, and my clunky old iPhone that still has a home button, I’m not yet willing to give it up. Having an online space that is only mine – with no deadlines or word counts, is a precious thing.

But I would like to make better use of it, and I’ve been thinking about how to do that. Continue reading →