Mayfair Mum moves on

With apologies to those of you who have remained loyal followers of Mayfair Mum. I feel I owe you an apology for my absence lately – its been a few years…!

Things were Feeling Festive, when I last posted here in November 2014, just a few days before my father had a massive heart attack, swiftly followed by a stroke, which has seen him in hospital ever since. Life was chaotic, emotional and very, very busy for what felt like far too long.

It was at least a year before his rehab was through and the NHS could assess his long-term prognosis and eventually find him the palliative care he needs in a specialist care home.

Long enough for me to get out of the habit of writing – some might find writing through such an experience helpful – for me not so much. Mayfair Mum became an indulgence, it felt trivial and unimportant compared to what my parents and close family were going through. I cold-turkeyed, stopped posting, stopped reviewing, even supporting other blogs. Something had to give and I’m afraid it was this blogging gig.

Though not entirely fair, I know, I couldn’t even find the words to articulate this to you, my lovely, loyal readers who joined me on this journey between 2011 and 2014 and helped me make Mayfair Mum what it once was, for which I was and will always remain extremely grateful.

Once the storm subsided and relative calm was restored once again, I found we had a Junior School Boy, and not a Little Chap, who had a busier schedule of after school and weekend clubs and activities, more homework and what felt like way too little free time! I was still a Class Rep and ran the admin for his rugby club. It all felt like too much so I let someone else step up to both roles and got stuck into his new routine, making more time to focus on my roles at work and home. We badly needed to start making some improvements to the house we bought just before that Junior School Boy joined us and I knew I’d need time and space to make that happen.

Another year went by and we fitted wardrobes and crystallised our ideas for the kitchen and started to discuss our other plans for the bathroom, a bigger dining table, some garden furniture we actually wanted to use and even carpet so we can play board games on the lounge floor with Junior School Boy before the arthritis kicks in! I slowly began to miss the creative outlet that had been Mayfair Mum but any urge I had to write was always coupled with a strong feeling that I was not “Mayfair Mum” anymore, so much had changed, this blog didn’t feel like the right fit for me anymore.

I considered re-branding as more of a lifestyle than parenting blog and archiving posts but it all seemed rather too complicated and I never seemed to have enough time to look into it. What I wanted was to dive straight in and type somewhere that, as I began to get more of my life back, felt more like me!

Then, on holiday this year, I had all the time in the world and after sharing my experiences with a friend who was planning to take the Insta-world by storm herself, I thought, why not just bite the bullet and start a new blog? I know I have more to share and why not have all the fun of building a new brand, a new audience and make it exactly what I want it to be?

So I started to play with my Instagram account… and my WordPress app… and before I knew it, I’d created Em’s Life After 40, a new lifestyle blog for the busy 40-something woman. I also scheduled my first post to go live on 1 August and I thought the least I could do would be to share this with you all – so do please hop on over and take a look. If you like what you see (I really hope you will), then please sign up, say hello, let me know your thoughts or even follow Em’s Life as I live, love and learn my way through #lifeafter40 and all it has to offer.

Thanks for reading.

Emx