A Little Less Bloggersation

Lately I’ve been taking a bit of time to breathe.

Kind of an enforced sabbatical from blogging.

Recent malware attacks on Mummy Central made it necessary to shut down and do a thorough clean-up (more on that another time).

But there was also the not-so-minor issue of Elizabeth departing from this blog.

Yes, my partner in crime, my other blogging half, the woman who started all of this madness…

…decided a short while ago to leave me to my own devices.

At least on the frontline.

She’s been writing less and less for Mummy Central – but has still worked her socks off on the clean-up and redesign.

Our shutdown seemed the perfect time to make the changes necessary to get me started as the sole author.

But that left me twiddling my thumbs while my frazzled friend did all the work.

And a few days away from the blog started to feel…. freeing.

Days stretched into weeks.

Two weeks is a long time in the blogging world. Most of us don’t like to leave things for more than a couple of days

We become slaves to the stats, constantly trying to keep up our readership and rankings.

Always trying to balance the personal posts with the reviews and a fair amount of competitions to keep people coming back.

We bloggers are constantly pimping our posts on social media, trying to bring more traffic our way.

While MC was shut down, a couple gave up completely. The very entertaining Motherventing  and the lovely Mummy Never Sleeps. Because something which should be a pleasure was becoming a burden.

We tell ourselves we’re just writing for the fun of it.

But human nature sees us checking how popular we are, striving for more – until it starts to interfere with everything else.

So being away from Mummy Central made me realise this has got to be a labour of love.

When it feels like hard labour, it’s not worth it any more.

For me and Elizabeth, we started this blog to see if we could make a business – out of her technical and design skills and my flair for writing.

We still have hopes of achieving this – although obviously one parenting blog does not equal a decent living.

Which is why it doesn’t make sense for both of us to be feeding the monster.

For me, it’s cathartic having this place to share my thoughts, to vent, to make sense of life’s happenings.

Elizabeth  made noises about handing over the Mummy Central reigns to me in the past. And I generally talked her out of it, not willing to let go of the security blanket of having a partner.

Plus, this blog was all her idea in the first place.

Then towards the end of the Summer, she went on holiday, and I wrote this post.

It was just a personal insight into where my head was at.

But when she returned, it somehow proved what she’d been feeling – that perhaps MC was more of a home for me than it felt for her.

So I’ll be keeping this blog going.

Perhaps it’s a good thing. People were starting to say they didn’t know which of us they were reading/talking to anyway (I could never understand that. It’s not like we’re bloody Ant and Dec!)

 

So to Elizabeth, I say thank you.

For bringing the mummy blogging phenomena to my attention – and persuading me to give it a try.

And for always being there, as a friend and (hopefully) a business partner.

Elizabeth will still be around for reviews, with her ever-enthusiastic team of little helpers, Milly, Mac and BBZ.

And I value her friendship and her foresight.

Much more than this blog.

If MC ever came between us, I’d give it up.

And I fear with all the work she’s done on MC lately, it’s come very close to that. (If I’ve ever seemed less than grateful for all your work and dedication, my good friend, I’m very sorry for that).

While Elizabeth goes for a lie down in a darkened room, I’m taking over.

It’s a little scary. A little exciting.

But a few weeks away has given me perspective.

MC’s stats will no doubt have plummeted. So be it.

A bit of real life has put a lot of things into focus for me.

Of course I want you to read. I’m not kidding myself.

But worrying about it, and being a slave to this blog isn’t going to make a difference.

So I’m going to continue doing this for as long as it’s something I want to do.

For as long as it’s fulfilling and fun, and I’ve got something to say.