Posted By Sarah Mummy on Jan 6, 2022 | 2 comments

The other day, I wrote about the most popular posts on my blog in 2021. But they’re not my own favourites!

For many years, I blogged six or seven times per week, as there was always lots of stuff to write about. But in recent years, I’ve gradually started blogging less and less. My kids are grown up or nearly grown up and their stories are their own, not mine to share (although I have permission to share all the long jump stuff, which I’m very happy about). In addition to having less material, I seem to have less time to blog too. Now my posts tend to be about myself or more influenced by things my family do rather than real specifics. We certainly have valuable experience to share – whether that’s about ballet exams, kids’ sports, apprenticeships or Veganuary.

These days, I tend to share one photo post a week, one book review a week and only one or two posts about family and life per week. But I’ve still written plenty of posts which I’m very happy with (even if very few people have actually read them!).

So, here, in no particular order are some of my favourite posts of 2021…

At the end of 2020, my dad was seriously ill in hospital with Covid-19 and we feared he may not pull through, then he surprised me early in 2021 with this admission – ‘Parkrun saved my life’. Then he surprised us with yet another admission – Covid-19: I never felt ill. In a way, that didn’t entirely surprise me, as whenever I’d spoken to him he hadn’t seemed that ill, yet the information we were getting from the hospital told a very different story. Although things have moved on now with most people being vaccinated, my dad’s story is an important reminder!

If there’s one thing we know quite a lot about in our family, it’s sport for kids. So I thought I would share our experiences of just why sport is so important for kids – The importance of sport for kids.

People of my age are often stuck between caring for both their (usually teenage) kids and their ageing parents. It can be a difficult time. It is something which will come to many of us at some point in our lives, so it was worth sharing – Becoming the sandwich generation

My son, gaming and the eBay phase was actually a more personal and quirky post – about a teenage boy’s development stage you don’t often read about – the ‘eBay phase’, when they suddenly develop a love of buying and selling things online.

My eldest didn’t go to university, he chose to do an apprenticeship after A Levels. I am very much in favour of apprenticeships as a career path for young people. Did you know, you can even get a degree through an apprenticeship? Not everyone is really aware of them, so I wrote Apprenticeships: A realistic alternative to university.

Generation X is a recent post which fits well with my sandwich generation post. People talk about (sometimes moan about!) the Millennials and the Boomers, but somehow the generation in between gets forgotten. We might seem a bit boring. We’re middle aged. But we work hard, we often have a lot of caring responsibilities and many have got decent salaries and real spending power. So this post is a reminder of our existence!

From a personal point of view, my proudest achievement of the year had to be running Newport marathon. So of course that had to be one of my favourite posts of 2021.

I write a lot about running and you might assume that I’ve always run long distances. That is not the case! This year, I shared a post all about my early years of running – from 1994 to 2011.

I’ve been parenting teenagers for a long time now – I even had the pleasure of parenting three at once for a while (my kids are now 20, 18 and 15). Parenting teenagers isn’t easy. But is it easier than parenting toddlers? I enjoyed sharing my thoughts on this. Do you agree with me?

My younger son is a very good long jumper and you can read a lot about his journey on my blog. This year, his dream finally came true and he made it to the English Schools national finals. He was supposed to go in 2019, but fractured his pelvis a few weeks before, and of course 2020 got cancelled. How did he get on?

Which brings me nicely onto my final favourite post of 2021 – How do you know if your child is talented at sport? We always knew my son was good at sport, but were there any early indicators that he was going to be really talented? What should a parent look out for and nurture?

So that’s my favourite blogposts of 2021. Have I included your favourites? Are there any I’ve missed?

Long jump, Athlete, Athletics, Son, English Schools, English Schools athletics

2 Comments

Kim Carberry
January 7, 2022

I think I have read all of your blog posts which you mentioned.
I am glad your dad is doing well at the moment. My dad has recovered well thankfully. I am not a sporty person, neither is my family but I love reading about your running and your son and the long jumping. x
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- Sarah Mummy
  January 8, 2022
  
  Thank you! You are definitely one of my most dedicated readers and I really appreciate it.
  My dad is just the same as any other man of his age now (probably a bit fitter than most, to be honest). So glad to hear your dad has recovered well too.
  It’s nice to hear that you enjoy reading about the running and the long jumping, even though it’s not something you do yourself. I definitely enjoy writing about them! x
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