My most popular posts of 2022

Every year, I like to look back on my most popular posts of the year. And they are never particularly representative of my blog!

Now I have two adult, and one nearly adult, children, I don’t write as much about parenting and family life any more. But there are still definitely a few posts – this year I’ve written about the emptying nest, for example. I generally only publish one ‘proper’ post a week now, as it’s much harder to write about things when your kids are all grown up.

My blog now has become about pets, running and books (I post a book review every week), with a bit of family life thrown in.

My top posts of 2022 tell a different story though. Here are my most popular posts of the year…

My most popular post for the fourth consecutive year is The matchbox challenge – all about how many things you can fit into a matchbox. It was written in 2016 and is clearly one of very few pieces of information on the internet about how many things you fit in a matchbox! It comes third on Google for ‘How many things can you fit in a matchbox’ and second for ‘matchbox challenge’.

My number 2 post in 2022 was the RAD Intermediate Foundation ballet exam, which I wrote in 2020 and was also my second most popular post last year. It actually comes top on Google for ‘intermediate foundation ballet’.

My third most post popular post was The distinction that wasn’t good enough. And then it was, which I wrote about my daughter’s Grade 2 ballet exam in 2016. It was my fourth most popular post last year, my most popular post in 2017 and 2018, and my second most popular post in 2019 and 2020!

My number 4 post for the year was How to organise a Year 6 leavers’ event, which I published in 2017. It gets a little bit of traffic all year round and is especially popular in spring and summer. It was my fifth most popular post in both 2020 and 2021.

My fifth most popular post for the year was yet another ballet post – The Royal Ballet, Elmhurst and rejection – all about my daughter’s auditions to be an associate at both the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Elmhurst ballet school. Written in 2018, it was my sixth most popular post last year.

The HRT patch was my sixth most popular post for 2022. I wrote it in 2019, when people didn’t talk about menopause, perimenopause and HRT as much as they do now. I’m glad people are still reading it, although it has slipped down from third place last year.

 

I haven’t written reviews for years, and never wrote many anyway. But my seventh most popular post is a review – Review of Heelys from Skates, written in 2017. It was my eighth most popular post last year and it definitely gets more popular in the run-up to Christmas.

My number 8 post for the year was the only one in the top 10 I wrote this year. Unsurprisingly, it is another ballet post – The RAD Intermediate ballet exam. This would be quite easy to confuse with my number 2 post, but they are different exams.

My ninth most popular post for the year was a blast from the past – The ganglion. A ganglion is a lump on your wrist. Strangely, I got another one recently and decided to Google it to check that’s what it was. The first thing I saw was an image of my own wrist from 2016!

My number 10 post for the year was Geocaching argument, which is an old Center Parcs post. I haven’t written about Center Parcs for years, but these posts are always inside or very close to the top 10. I actually wrote it in 2012!

So that’s my most popular posts for 2022 – very similar to 2021. They aren’t my own favourite posts, but they obviously serve some purpose to my readers, which has to be a good thing.