I’m often sceptical of the big ‘I’ve quit Instagram’ announcements. Usually the creator in question goes back to the platform with gusto and so, for quite a while, I’ve put off saying anything.
For those of you who don’t know, my foray into writing about parenting and education started on Instagram back in 2016. I was, at that time, a new mum for the second time. I’d also just moved to Australia and felt a little isolated and lonely.
For a while, Instagram was a real solace for me. I used my teachers skills to share activities that could be done with babies and toddlers. I built up a fairly respectable following and I loved the community aspect. I was interacting with like-minded parents and teachers on a daily basis and I felt a little less alone.
Ironically, it was when some of my infographic posts reached a somewhat ‘viral’ status that I started to panic about numbers. Something that was initially a bit of fun became more serious. Poor performing posts were gutting and I began feeling anxious about posting.
Whilst a lot of fellow Instagrammers thrived during the pandemic period, I found myself faltering. As an introvert, I didn’t really want to make Reels to trending audio. Reach and engagement plummeted, especially when I focused on home-schooling my three children during school closures.
My Instagram page currently stands at just over 65k followers but that doesn’t mean a great deal these days. In fact, that figure became the only reason why I didn’t quit sooner. Whilst saying goodbye to so many followers feels daunting, I haven’t felt a sense of community on Instagram for a long time: I rarely see the people that I follow and I’m pretty certain that a lot of my original followers have also quit Instagram.
The whole goal of the platform has changed, leaving me questioning whether information based posts are all that relevant on Instagram anymore. Instead, I’ve decided to focus all of my energy on Substack. Here, I can focus on sharing my knowledge and connect with people who want to see what I write.









How I’m changing things:
Whilst I don’t intend to post on Instagram anymore, I’m keeping my page live for the time-being. However, I do plan to cross-post popular posts via Substack Notes.
I’m also going to close my existing website This Playful Home in early January. It currently costs me £400+ to run each year and, as I am decidedly not a tech-expert, updating it and trying to make it look okay is time-consuming. All popular activity posts will be moved onto Substack in due course.
Whilst putting all of my eggs in the Substack basket might be considered a risk, I love how easy it is to use this platform.
Coming Soon:
During the summer, I shared a change to paid subscriber emails. They are now divided into set modules which should (hopefully) provide a better flow of information.
The most recent series, ‘How to Support your School Aged Child’ is now fully available to paying subscribers.
Now that Substack have released more video content options, I’m wondering whether a workshop format might be beneficial and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Workshops would take the format of a video which would be released at the start of each month - these would also include a written summary of issues discussed. Email series would continue to be published on a weekly basis.
You can vote regardless of whether you are a paying subscriber or not - and your vote also doesn’t mean I’m expecting you to commit to a subscription!
In October, I will also be launching
here on Substack. To celebrate that, subscriber series will be dedicated to the topic, ‘How to Raise a Reader’. Each month, I am planning to share reading recommendations, reading tips and a monthly book club. The first book to be discussed will be Charlotte’s Web.In addition to this, my tutoring website will be fully up and running in October. Since I specialise in literacy, this will run in conjunction with Our Reading Rituals. I’ll be running both online and in person tutoring sessions for children aged 5 - 12 as well as curriculum plans for home-schoolers. I’m hoping to share that new page with you just in time for next week’s email.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Substack versus Instagram and more so send me a message below: