unpacking work, life, and motherhood, one box at a time
BLP Show Notes: Instagram.
November 22, 2021
A rather raw + honest ep for you today:
I still haven’t entirely decided what to do with my accounts, but am leaning towards just a dormant year in 2022. It can be an experiment . . .
NC Report
my baby
quintessential Life & Science shot! (I know we have others with much younger kids!)
BONUS: FALL LEAVES! I didn’t really think about it, but was so happy to see the trees are still celebrating fall in NC!
ELMO’S diner, where Josh and I probably ate 100 times from 2002-2013. It hasn’t changed, which we were happy about!
Somehow she knew what to do with fall leaves!
Josh is now back in FL (he has to work — on call!) and the rest of us will be in NC until Weds afternoon. The only thing I am somewhat nervous about is returning the rental car and getting on the plane with all 3 kids solo but . . . we will leave extra early and somehow it will work out.
My husband and son are coming to my work city this weekend for a little break and kiddo is super excited about the plane ride (first since late 2019, he’s a few months older than G), a visit to the museum, and seeing mummy’s office. And the promise of the purchase of a lego magazine in the airport bookshop. We’ll mooch about here for 5 days and then go home together, and that is fingers crossed my last work travel for 2019, as teaching is done.
Portugal for Christmas, just 3 hours on the plane though, and staying with the grandparents so it should be a much needed break. We had a terrible red eye when he was 2 which left us slightly traumatised, he fell asleep and had a NIGHT TERROR on the plane, nothing can be worse than that.
Just caught up on your other blog posts – so glad the flight went smoothly! Hope it goes ok going back. I’d be all about bribing the older kids to be on extra good behavior with bonus screen time when you get back or something. 😉 But maybe they won’t need to be bribed and will just be naturally good because this trip has been such a treat for all of you!
We just bought our first plane tickets in nearly 2 years. I made sure they were refundable. We are planning to go to AZ in February to see my sister’s family, right around when my niece turns 1. We saw her in August when they came back to MN but babies change so much so I can’t wait to see her again and get a break from winter. Our oldest will be almost 4, like G, so I think he will probably do well on the plane, especially with a screen/headphones to entertain him – and he will wear a mask. The wild card is the baby but we’ll see what happens. But maybe, just maybe, they will have their first dose by then? I’m being optimistic but that will be such a game changer to have our kids vaxxed.
I think your year break from IG makes total sense! Good idea to have a way for people to find you. I feel that since you were a blogger before a podcaster, people come to your show notes/posts for dialogue – not to IG. So overall I’d think it probably won’t impact growth all that much? Hopefully being on 10 things brought some new listeners over!! You did so great on that show!
Yes, totally … you did so great on the 10 things podcast Sarah. Because of you, I started following that podcast too. I am sure many have likewise followed you after listening your episode there.
Kind of off topic yet related: I find it interesting how people end up “addicted” to different social media platforms. It’s also interesting to hear how different people use them! For example, for me, my main “drug of choice” (to borrow your metaphor 😉 is Facebook. I’m 38 and live in the Midwest. And honestly I am probably Facebook friends with over 90-95% of people I know/am friends/or even am acquaintances with in real life. Like ALL of my kids’ friends’ moms, everyone we know from their sports, everyone from high school, all of my past coworkers is on there and I’d say most are active users! Especially in the kids’ friends’ moms realm/ sports parents arena, I feel like I would be a total outlier if I DIDN’T have Facebook! I can honestly barely think of anyone that I know IRL that doesn’t have it/use it. So that is a struggle for me. I feel sort of a sense of obligation/desire to “keep up” with what people are doing, celebrate their kids’ accomplishments, comment on their holiday photos, etc.
Now for IG, I do have that but it’s not something I use nearly as often. I don’t really have many “real life” friends on there- more like IG only/ blog type friends, if that makes sense. I do enjoy those “relationships” too, and like you, find out about interesting books, podcasts, ideas, whatever that way. But the biggest addiction factor for me is still definitely Facebook, I guess because it’s real life people. I also use FB to follow our city pages, school pages, kids’ sports pages, etc.- so it almost seems crazy to me that you don’t “need” it! haha!! I feel like it would almost be difficult for me to NOT have it, like I would miss important information and updates that are shared that way. Maybe it’s a regional thing? Like Facebook is still cool in the Midwest and not in more hip South Florida?? 😉
Last thought- it’s funny though how Cal Newport always talks about people being addicted to Twitter…which I’ve never, ever had! So, no addiction there! Am I missing something? I guess I don’t know! Or a friend mentioned yesterday that she just loves Snapchat and is on a 450 day “streak” sending messages with some friend on Snapchat. I was like, what even is that?!? Don’t have that, don’t think I need it! So I guess we only miss what we ever had in the first place (probably a good reason to just never get any of them!).
The main “info” communication platform people use here for school, neighborhoods, etc is WhatsApp. Thankfully it is not even slightly addicting. If they ever change it so it shows more than just your own group threads, I’d want to quit.
In addition to the class and neighborhood WhatsApp threads, i have two text chains I actively use to chat with friends. Regular texting (everyone has iPhones so no “green” texts lol). Others I just text separately. Maybe I just don’t have many friends …
Another option for a large weekly set up is the Savor Life Planner. It has a good balance of structure and open-endedness as well as multiple pages per week for organizing lists and notes. I don’t find it as overbearing as many other “self-care” planners. I just wish they made it longer than for 12 weeks!
Your solo travel will be fine! Make A & C be buddies (like they must hold hands when walking etc) and then you can focus more on G/be her buddy. Rental Return is usually super easy and much shorter than rental car getting. You just give them the keys. I flew solo with my 18 mo & 3 year old many years ago. People are kind when you’re a mom traveling alone so bank on that if need be. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Hi! I just wanted to jump in with a suggestion for Instagram. You could always do a severe edit of your following list, either un-following or ‘hiding’ (won’t show up in your feed but also won’t unfollow) so that the only things that should show up in your feed are what you follow. And it sounds like that might only be a few accounts! That could be a nice way for you to still see those posts, but the feed will ‘end’ (at least I think that’s how it works) That way you could still keep it in case you do want to use it for posting about the show and ability to have some discussion there.
I personally only interact/comment on instagram, I actually think this is first blog post (from any blog) I’ve commented on in about 8 years haha! So maybe that shows if people want to participate they will just come to wherever you are 🙂
This conversation also had me thinking, as a fellow Gretchen Rubin fan, if this is relevant to whether you are a moderator vs abstainer. For me (a moderator) the idea of completely getting rid of an app terrifies me (what if I need to access or look up something really quick? how annoying! I’d rather just log out and take it off my home screen) but I can see how an abstainer would rather just not have access at all. Interesting podcast, I always enjoy the episodes! Hope you find an Instagram plan that works best for you!
Aww, thank you so much for commenting (I do get that it’s a bit more tedious than commenting through IG – so I appreciate it!). I am normally totally with you when it comes to moderator and love the idea that unfollowing would create a more wholesome curated interface, but Insta still pulls up all those ads and “reels” and “suggested” no matter what. They know exactly what will push my buttons (ie, get me zoned out and into scrolling mode) and so it makes this very hard to do.
I would totally PAY for a version of Insta that would allow me to scroll only through my OWN FEED, in order, the way the app started out!
We’ve been to that Elmo’s with you! 🙂 They closed the one here in Carrboro – sad trombone :(. To be honest, I don’t use Insta to find new podcasts but maybe some people do? I don’t think it’s necessary.
Hi there! I recently discovered you via Laura Tremaine’s podcast. I really enjoyed the conversation you two had! I ventured over to these show notes to see if you mention which app you use to track your screen time usage but was pleasantly surprised to read some snippets of your trip to Durham in the fall! I consider myself lucky to have been able to take my son to Duke a couple of times as part of a clinical trial that he was in up there. I fell In love with the city! It is so charming and I loved all of the kid friendly/accommodating parks and green spaces! We even ate at Elmo’s on the recommendation of the NP we were working with at the time. I am a wife, mother of three and I am an ICU nurse up in Gainesville at UF Health. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and that I’m really enjoying learning from you about how you juggle all of the things and I am hoping to be able to implement some of your tips into my currently chaotic life! 😊
awww! Thanks so much for saying hi. I miss Durham – we were there for 11 years (2002 – 2013!). If it weren’t form my job (which I love) down here, I’d totally move back 🙂 Definitely some similarities to Gainesville! PS: ICU nurse = you are amazing!
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15 Comments
My husband and son are coming to my work city this weekend for a little break and kiddo is super excited about the plane ride (first since late 2019, he’s a few months older than G), a visit to the museum, and seeing mummy’s office. And the promise of the purchase of a lego magazine in the airport bookshop. We’ll mooch about here for 5 days and then go home together, and that is fingers crossed my last work travel for 2019, as teaching is done.
Portugal for Christmas, just 3 hours on the plane though, and staying with the grandparents so it should be a much needed break. We had a terrible red eye when he was 2 which left us slightly traumatised, he fell asleep and had a NIGHT TERROR on the plane, nothing can be worse than that.
A few days late, welcome to NC. Next time I see you planning a trip on the blog, I will try to reach out earlier. Would love to meet at some point!
Just caught up on your other blog posts – so glad the flight went smoothly! Hope it goes ok going back. I’d be all about bribing the older kids to be on extra good behavior with bonus screen time when you get back or something. 😉 But maybe they won’t need to be bribed and will just be naturally good because this trip has been such a treat for all of you!
We just bought our first plane tickets in nearly 2 years. I made sure they were refundable. We are planning to go to AZ in February to see my sister’s family, right around when my niece turns 1. We saw her in August when they came back to MN but babies change so much so I can’t wait to see her again and get a break from winter. Our oldest will be almost 4, like G, so I think he will probably do well on the plane, especially with a screen/headphones to entertain him – and he will wear a mask. The wild card is the baby but we’ll see what happens. But maybe, just maybe, they will have their first dose by then? I’m being optimistic but that will be such a game changer to have our kids vaxxed.
I think your year break from IG makes total sense! Good idea to have a way for people to find you. I feel that since you were a blogger before a podcaster, people come to your show notes/posts for dialogue – not to IG. So overall I’d think it probably won’t impact growth all that much? Hopefully being on 10 things brought some new listeners over!! You did so great on that show!
Yes, totally … you did so great on the 10 things podcast Sarah. Because of you, I started following that podcast too. I am sure many have likewise followed you after listening your episode there.
Kind of off topic yet related: I find it interesting how people end up “addicted” to different social media platforms. It’s also interesting to hear how different people use them! For example, for me, my main “drug of choice” (to borrow your metaphor 😉 is Facebook. I’m 38 and live in the Midwest. And honestly I am probably Facebook friends with over 90-95% of people I know/am friends/or even am acquaintances with in real life. Like ALL of my kids’ friends’ moms, everyone we know from their sports, everyone from high school, all of my past coworkers is on there and I’d say most are active users! Especially in the kids’ friends’ moms realm/ sports parents arena, I feel like I would be a total outlier if I DIDN’T have Facebook! I can honestly barely think of anyone that I know IRL that doesn’t have it/use it. So that is a struggle for me. I feel sort of a sense of obligation/desire to “keep up” with what people are doing, celebrate their kids’ accomplishments, comment on their holiday photos, etc.
Now for IG, I do have that but it’s not something I use nearly as often. I don’t really have many “real life” friends on there- more like IG only/ blog type friends, if that makes sense. I do enjoy those “relationships” too, and like you, find out about interesting books, podcasts, ideas, whatever that way. But the biggest addiction factor for me is still definitely Facebook, I guess because it’s real life people. I also use FB to follow our city pages, school pages, kids’ sports pages, etc.- so it almost seems crazy to me that you don’t “need” it! haha!! I feel like it would almost be difficult for me to NOT have it, like I would miss important information and updates that are shared that way. Maybe it’s a regional thing? Like Facebook is still cool in the Midwest and not in more hip South Florida?? 😉
Last thought- it’s funny though how Cal Newport always talks about people being addicted to Twitter…which I’ve never, ever had! So, no addiction there! Am I missing something? I guess I don’t know! Or a friend mentioned yesterday that she just loves Snapchat and is on a 450 day “streak” sending messages with some friend on Snapchat. I was like, what even is that?!? Don’t have that, don’t think I need it! So I guess we only miss what we ever had in the first place (probably a good reason to just never get any of them!).
The main “info” communication platform people use here for school, neighborhoods, etc is WhatsApp. Thankfully it is not even slightly addicting. If they ever change it so it shows more than just your own group threads, I’d want to quit.
In addition to the class and neighborhood WhatsApp threads, i have two text chains I actively use to chat with friends. Regular texting (everyone has iPhones so no “green” texts lol). Others I just text separately. Maybe I just don’t have many friends …
Another option for a large weekly set up is the Savor Life Planner. It has a good balance of structure and open-endedness as well as multiple pages per week for organizing lists and notes. I don’t find it as overbearing as many other “self-care” planners. I just wish they made it longer than for 12 weeks!
Ooh I’ve been curious about that one!
Your solo travel will be fine! Make A & C be buddies (like they must hold hands when walking etc) and then you can focus more on G/be her buddy. Rental Return is usually super easy and much shorter than rental car getting. You just give them the keys. I flew solo with my 18 mo & 3 year old many years ago. People are kind when you’re a mom traveling alone so bank on that if need be. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Hi! I just wanted to jump in with a suggestion for Instagram. You could always do a severe edit of your following list, either un-following or ‘hiding’ (won’t show up in your feed but also won’t unfollow) so that the only things that should show up in your feed are what you follow. And it sounds like that might only be a few accounts! That could be a nice way for you to still see those posts, but the feed will ‘end’ (at least I think that’s how it works) That way you could still keep it in case you do want to use it for posting about the show and ability to have some discussion there.
I personally only interact/comment on instagram, I actually think this is first blog post (from any blog) I’ve commented on in about 8 years haha! So maybe that shows if people want to participate they will just come to wherever you are 🙂
This conversation also had me thinking, as a fellow Gretchen Rubin fan, if this is relevant to whether you are a moderator vs abstainer. For me (a moderator) the idea of completely getting rid of an app terrifies me (what if I need to access or look up something really quick? how annoying! I’d rather just log out and take it off my home screen) but I can see how an abstainer would rather just not have access at all. Interesting podcast, I always enjoy the episodes! Hope you find an Instagram plan that works best for you!
Aww, thank you so much for commenting (I do get that it’s a bit more tedious than commenting through IG – so I appreciate it!). I am normally totally with you when it comes to moderator and love the idea that unfollowing would create a more wholesome curated interface, but Insta still pulls up all those ads and “reels” and “suggested” no matter what. They know exactly what will push my buttons (ie, get me zoned out and into scrolling mode) and so it makes this very hard to do.
I would totally PAY for a version of Insta that would allow me to scroll only through my OWN FEED, in order, the way the app started out!
We’ve been to that Elmo’s with you! 🙂 They closed the one here in Carrboro – sad trombone :(. To be honest, I don’t use Insta to find new podcasts but maybe some people do? I don’t think it’s necessary.
Hi there! I recently discovered you via Laura Tremaine’s podcast. I really enjoyed the conversation you two had! I ventured over to these show notes to see if you mention which app you use to track your screen time usage but was pleasantly surprised to read some snippets of your trip to Durham in the fall! I consider myself lucky to have been able to take my son to Duke a couple of times as part of a clinical trial that he was in up there. I fell In love with the city! It is so charming and I loved all of the kid friendly/accommodating parks and green spaces! We even ate at Elmo’s on the recommendation of the NP we were working with at the time. I am a wife, mother of three and I am an ICU nurse up in Gainesville at UF Health. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and that I’m really enjoying learning from you about how you juggle all of the things and I am hoping to be able to implement some of your tips into my currently chaotic life! 😊
awww! Thanks so much for saying hi. I miss Durham – we were there for 11 years (2002 – 2013!). If it weren’t form my job (which I love) down here, I’d totally move back 🙂 Definitely some similarities to Gainesville! PS: ICU nurse = you are amazing!
Oh, and the app is just the built in “Screen Time” feature on iPhones! Go to settings –> screen time