I spend a lot of time on twitter. I have excellent Klout. As I also have an obsessive compulsive desire to be better than everyone else at everything while not actually beating anyone (I don’t like to make anyone feel bad) I watch numbers like my Klout score, technorati rating, Wikio and tots ranking obsessively. And my stats (of which I have a variety of types), obviously.
It’s not good for me. It’s not good for anyone. That isn’t what this blog is supposed to be about. It’s probably rather difficult to tell what this blog *is* supposed to be about atm, but it set out to be a way to stay connected to remote home educating friends when I didn’t see them for a while. To my shame, I’ve lost sight of that recently, and haven’t even been reading my friends’ blogs, let alone commenting on them.
It’s time to get my head out of the numeric sand, and remember what this is all about. This blog has become both more, and less, than a record of our family life, and that’s OK, it’s OK for it to evolve and change. I’m not entirely sure who is still here reading who has been here from the beginning, and who has disappeared off, bored to tears by book reviews and competitions. I don’t really know who has arrived along the way, maybe drawn in by picture memes or carnival posts – I hope you enjoy it here anyway.
There needs to be more of us here, which is a little difficult, given that the children are aware of the blog and rather more loath to have the everyday minutiae of their lives shared to all and sundry. So I think I shall have to discuss the delivery of home education, rather than the receipt if that makes any sense? Which is a shame on a lot of levels, as I’m incredibly proud of how they learn, think their interests are fascinating and their independence awe inspiring. Perhaps I’ll just ask them proofread the posts that particularly mention them.
Any failings (educationally or otherwise) of course are my fault. Isn’t that our role as parents? To be the beginning and ending, be the cause and bear the blame? At some point you hope that as the child becomes the adult they take on the responsibility for themselves, but not yet. No, not yet.
So where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. I do a fair bit of waffling around I know, but I just thought I’d share a little decision with you. I’m going to stop checking my technorati score. I’ve unfollowed KloutPerks. I’ve unsubscribed from the daily email I was getting from Postrank with my engagement score and I’m not even going to look at my Klout from now on.
It’s going to be tough. I may wibble in a corner for a little while. There may be pathetic wailing from time to time – please help me stay strong? I’m not withdrawing from Wikio or tots though – both of those support my ulterior motives, and even more importantly, they aren’t daily scores. The wikio ranking looks fab when I’m asking for books for me and the kids to review to support our fundraising efforts, or that we then donate on to families in NZ (and quite a lot of them are good for our home education too). I’m not earning atm, given the whole home education at home with three children thing, and reviewing stuff lets us get our hands on things that we couldn’t otherwise afford. And tots is exposure in the mainstream of the mummy blogs for home education, which is ulterior motive enough in itself. So there you go.
Is this liberation or lunacy? Only time will tell.
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