Ten Years of Relentless

I have two babies turning ten this year – my middle daughter (aka Curly Mop – less a mop these days and more a Rapunzel clone) and this blog (aka Relentless).


Ten is an important number, a milestone if you will, and cause to pause and reflect on the past decade.


Relentless started in the computer lab of a Perth high school in October 2010. I had made the newly minted decision to become a writer, and had been encouraged by a good friend to attend her ‘Blogging for Fun and Profit’ course.


In hindsight I have only managed to achieve one of those goals (no prizes for guessing which one), but over the past ten years I have published almost 330 posts and racked up 716,000 views.


The law of averages says that means each post has received just shy of 2,170 readers but in reality 40% of those readers came to see just one thing  while my top five posts account for more than half my readers.


Suddenly the other 325 posts aren’t looking so flash. But that’s okay.


When I started Relentless (then called From Mum to Me, you can find out why here) getting readers was far from my mind (in fact I was quite terrified anyone would read it). With a nine month old baby on my hip and a four and a half year old in Kindy, its primary purpose was to plug the holes in my post-natal memory and create a permanent chronicle of the small moments that are easily lost and forgotten in the chaos of small children.


Relentless saw the birth of Baby Number Three, that post, renovations, becoming a ‘school mum’, returning to uni, the highs of my writing successes and the lows of motherhood. Of which there were plenty.


Over recent years I have been writing less and less here at Relentless. This is a combination of being otherwise occupied here and here, but also as the girls get older I’ve needed to be mindful of their privacy. That’s not to suggest they don’t do weird crazy crap all the time, I just can’t write about it.  

Out with the old

I thought that being so old and all, Relentless deserved a new cover image, and so in typical fashion I did one in a half-assed rush, rather than putting in any real effort. But it’s the thought that counts, and so you will see I have said goodbye to the nappy and dummy (diaper and pacifier) and said hello to car keys and phone chargers. Plastic cutlery has been replaced by stamps for the reward chart and a sleeping mask. Dora has been traded with a scary vampire hooker doll. My computer and books now take pride of place. The coffee cup and wine glass remain supplemented by the ubiquitous block of chocolate.


There’s also headache pills, because…. Life with three kids!

And in with the new