I’ve created a monster, a huge blog that needs a lot of maintenance. It’s sucking up my money and time and giving me headaches.
Frequently, this blog falls apart or runs so slowly that readers give up waiting for new pages to appear. I understand how visitors might get frustrated. Some days, even I don’t want to go anywhere near my blog. I’m tempted to hit the delete button to eliminate all the problems I don’t want to fix.
I’ve told a few friends that I’m only maintaining this unschooling blog until the end of the year. When 2026 arrives, there will be no more blog. I don’t know if that’s true, but it could be.
There’s one thing holding me back from freeing myself from my problem blog. It’s not the thought that readers will miss my posts because my blog’s heyday is over. People are reading about unschooling elsewhere. There are a million unschoolers out there on the Internet sharing their stories.
I haven’t yet deleted my blog because I’ll miss my posts if they disappear forever. They’re a big part of my life story. I must find a way to save them before doing anything drastic. I don’t want to do something that I can’t undo.
This morning, my blog was in the digital workshop again. As I turned plugins on and off and changed settings on everything possible, I imagined starting my blog again from scratch, reposting my stories one at a time. I’d use optimised images and avoid non-essential plugins. I’d create a simpler blog that would more likely stay in one piece.
Eventually, I sorted out today’s problem. Right now, everything is working. Pages are changing at a reasonable but not super-fast rate.
If you’d like to read my stories while they’re available, please hurry. But once you’re here, take your time. Don’t focus on page speed. Go slowly as you explore.
Sometimes slow is good, isn’t it? We rarely absorb much when we rush from post to post, scanning as many as possible. But when we stroll through the pages, we can ponder the words.
If you’d like more unschooling ideas, check out The Ladies Fixing the World podcast. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and I are back with another season – season 3 – of long-form unschooling conversations. Maybe I’ll return another day to tell you more about our recently published episodes.
Unless, of course, my blog breaks down again. If that happens, I shall walk away.
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I love your blog and your books, they are such a comfort to me as we begin our unschooling journey, I’ve read many others but I always return to your words. You are still very much relevant to me. But I understand if you feel it’s time to move on and I’ll always have your books and podcasts to listen to. But just know you are making a difference in my and my children’s lives.
Thank you so much for your beautiful words! It’s very encouraging to receive positive feedback. It makes me feel I’ve still got something useful to contribute. That’s something I’m struggling with at the moment. Am I needed in the unschool blog world? Or is it time to abandon all the blog problems and go do something else?
You said you are at the start of your unschooling journey. I wonder how you came across my blog because I no longer promote it. I’m not on social media where most of the unschooling conversations are happening. That seems to be where connections are made.
Thank you so much for stopping by. Maybe we’ll chat again another time! 😊
Technical issues are so frustrating! I’ve definitely been there. Sorry you are going through this.
Thank you so much for your empathy! Do you have a blog? Most of the bloggers I know have moved to social media which is much simpler. No technical problems to fix! I was looking at Substack the other day, wondering if I should move my writing there, but then I decided it was very much like social media. I don’t cope well with social media. I’ve tried it many times. Perhaps it’s better to stay here and fix my blog problems! 😊
Dear Sue,
I loooove your blog and it helped me (and still does) so much to go on in difficult times. It is a challenge to live in a country on the other side of the world where any kind of home based scolarisation is strictly forbidden and prosecuted by a prehistoric absurd set of laws and regulations originated in the time of N…zi Regime (Which is claimed to be a pure coincidence ;-), this country likes to boast daily with increasing vehemence in its medias of being most democratic, free and one protecting free speech – thats why I prefer not to sign with my full name being afraid that so much promises may be hard to keep ;-). One is free there as long as one is not trying to claim freedoms selfevident in most other coutries of the world as for example full responsability for education of ones own children. And freedom of speech exist for sure but it is not so simple with the freedom after speech, as many opponents of the governement get to feel in the early morning hours after posting some harmless critical tweet – they see their appartement raided by police for allegedly commiting “crime against democracy” – no I am not kidding they call it this way, it is the daily (!) reality. But what can you expect in a country where governement is trying seriously to forbid the official politiacal opposition which has now 28 to 40 % of votes depending on the region.). In this country somewhere between France and Poland, not to name any country directly 😉 children are not allowed free decisions on where and how they would like to be educated.
It gives me a hope to see it is not standard everywhere to treat young people with such little respect. I very much like the way you, your husband and your children respect each other and I dream of such a place where children can choose freely the way they want to be educated. It is so preciousto to be allowed to witness your way. I yould like to thank you and especially your children that you allowed us, readers to be, in a way, part of your family.
Though I understand if you don’t want to continue because your children are all grown up now, I would very ,very much appreciate if you could preserve your blog in some (simplified) way on some free or at least cheap platform. It is an incredibely important testament of time, a timestamp if you know what I mean? It is rare to find such a extensive (because your family is so large) and longterm document about home based education. It has definitely a great value!
I hope you can find a solution.
Wish you a splendid day:-)
M.
M,
It must be very difficult living in a country with a government that restricts your freedom while promoting themselves as very democratic. We are very fortunate. The only time I felt controlled by our government was during the covid years when restrictions that didn’t make sense and were very inhumane were imposed upon us. I hope never to live through such a time again.
My kids have always been very generous, sharing their stories and photos here on my blog. I appreciate that very much. I couldn’t have written most of my posts without their permission. Now that they’re adults, I like to preserve their privacy as much as I can. It’s got more difficult to tell new stories. Yes, it would be good if I could preserve the old stories. I have some thinking and research to do!
Thank you so much for stopping by to share your thoughts on the importance of my blog. I’ve enjoyed chatting with you! 😊