I don’t want to say this is the end of the road, but there’s a good chance that it is.
When I took over this site four years ago, I was stay-at-home parent to two elementary-school-aged sons with special needs. Like many things in life, this wasn’t something I had planned (the stay-at-home part, not the parent part), but it was something I had to deal with. It was also what I really needed to distract from the day-to-day drudgery; an opportunity to employ my passion via my lost profession.
Even though I tried to keep the scope of the site manageable in the event that I would return to work — the pseudonym that I used (Sue Dinem) from January 2010 until January 2012, was largely motivated by that concern — it grew too large. I may have succeeded in building something good, something to be proud of, but I failed to keep it modest enough to withstand the changes in my offline life.
This isn’t a knee-jerk decision. It’s been in the back of my mind for most of the summer, as it became harder and harder to publish as I had less and less time (and energy) to do it, despite having significant help from Jason Crocker and Julie Goldberg. I’ve been working part-time for quite some time now, but it’s been steadily ramping towards full-time.
I wish I could say that I’m excited about that (the work part), but I’m not. It’s a matter of doing what’s best for my family financially in the short-term while I continue to look for something more rewarding in the longer term. The kids getting older (they’re now in high school and middle school) actually makes this possible (and necessary).
I’m not looking to elicit sympathy — unless it’s a job with Fred Flintstone hours and/or Phillip Drummond pay — after all, I’m not shutting down the site just yet. If it continues, it’s going to be different, and less intensive. I just don’t know yet; I’m going to take a few months to figure that out.
But if this it, it’s been quite a ride. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, too.