A return to my roots
This isn't my first blogging rodeo, y'all
I used to be the queen of blogging. Okay, not THE queen (that title was held by more illustrious beings than me) but a queen of sorts. I was amongst the first wave of ‘mummy bloggers’ in the UK, when Blogspot and Wordpress ruled all and Instagram and TikTok hadn’t even been dreamed up in a 20-something tech geek’s bedroom yet. Hell, we didn’t even have Facebook or Twitter yet. Yes, I am that old.
Between 2004 and 2012, I wrote hundreds of posts, mostly about the hard work of mothering, adapting to life in the UK after growing up in the United States, and whatever political topic was making me irate in that moment. My blog was funny, fiery, touching, and relatable, and I was incredibly proud of it. Some of my best writing was created on that platform, and helped hone my craft immeasurably.
At one of the most difficult and most isolating times of my life — at home with two small children while trying desperately to maintain some sense of self, as well as attempting to resuscitate the writing career that had barely begun when I became with-sprog — it was not just a hobby, it was a lifeline. I met dozens of other amazing women going through similar experiences and their support and camaraderie were, at times, the only things seeing me through each day. Some of the people I met online during those years became lifelong friends, ones I am still close to today.
I stopped when the PR firms swooped in and started convincing people to monetise their blogs for very little. Not because I blamed the bloggers, but because I just didn’t want to be part of that. And also, if I’m being truthful, I needed a break. I felt like I had entered a doom spiral, writing only about how hard things were at home and in the world. I needed to turn away from that and focus on myself for awhile. In 2013, I went back to university to become a midwife, a mid-life career change that seemed admirable and which I enjoyed immensely, but which ended up driving me to the brink of insanity. You can read all about that experience in my book, Overdue, so I won’t rehash any of it here.
Needless to say, midwifery is a pretty all-consuming occupation. I didn’t write again for years, aside from the occasional mini-essay disguised as a social media post. Even after I left midwifery and wrote my book in 2020, I didn’t take up regular, public writing again. My penchant for longer-form written content didn’t seem to suit the increasingly visual and short form style that social media began favouring a few years ago, and which still does now.
But as I am fully in my mid-40s ‘I don’t give a fuck’ era, here we are. This may be a slightly more modern and updated form but it’s essentially the same. Substack bills itself as a ‘newsletter’ but its bones are made from blogs. The blogs where I cut my teeth and paid my dues.
So here I am, back for more. Round two, if you will. Let’s see where this ride takes us.