Join me as I reflect on a very unusual 2020 for the DMM Blog as it celebrates its 5th blogiversary. What themes did we find among the most popular posts of 2020, and in the past 5 years? I also reflect on what would be interesting to see in the future.
On April 18, 2016, Delft Mamas Tarja and Agnes made their inaugural post on the newly formed Delft MaMa Blog. Five years! What a long, strange trip it has been. I had the pleasure of reviving the blog with Onica King in 2018 and coordinating it until Barbara Baptista took over in 2020. She has since passed on the reins to our new coordinator, Vania Suazo. She already contributed with her Finding Our School In Delft and Finding A Balance In Times of Coronavirus posts. Best of luck to Vania!
I’d handed over coordination to Barbara just as the world was learning about a pesky little coronavirus, with the promise that I’d be on hand to help out with some posts. The reality of home-schooling a very active young child during the first lockdown here in the Netherlands hit me fast and hard (hats off to elementary school teachers everywhere <3). Barbara quickly stepped in to write last year’s blogiversary post, so I was thrilled to return the favor when she asked if I would write this year’s post. Turns out it’s the 5th blogiversary of the Delft MaMa Blog!
BLOGIVERSARY
It has become almost a tradition to do a review of the blog during the previous year and discuss future goals. Barbara has already done this in a separate post. Another thing we’ve done when reflecting on the previous year, is a quick community poll on all our social media platforms. Taking a look at Google Analytics (what a powerful tool!) also gives us valuable insight to all-time popular posts. Not only is it nice to revisit these posts, it helps the blog coordinator get an idea for future posts based on what we, as the readers, want to see on the blog.
Community reader poll
Thankfully, Vania was kind enough to pass along the below results of the poll for me. The top 3 posts of our blog from 2020 are;
1.Raising Multilingual Children by Ute Limacher-Riebold took the top slot (actually, there are several posts on this topic!),
2.How to Revamp your CV by Elena Mellara, and
3. Sustainable Eating by Cathy Delhanty.
Raising multilingual children
Most of us in the DMM community have experience with raising multilingual children (check these posts by Kathryn Roscoe and Olga Mecking). The number of DMM blog posts on this topic has grown immensely, partially thanks to collaboration with Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold in the past year. I had the pleasure of meeting Ute in April 2018 when she gave a workshop on Raising a Child of the World at the now closed DULI. You can read about that event here. I was happy to read more about raising multilingual children on the blog. 5 Steps to Raise Children with Multiple Languages and 4 Tips For Raising International Children were also written by Ute.
How to revamp your CV
Elena Mellara, the current HR Volunteer Coordinator for Delft MaMa, has written several posts geared towards finding a new job/career. There are many of us within the community that have had to change our expectations about jobs/careers after an international move or after life changes (such as having children!). Elena’s advice has been helpful in clearing up some confusion about next steps.
Read up on her posts; How to Revamp your CV , How to Prepare for a Job Interview and How to Boost your LinkedIn Presence.
If you need inspiration, a casual scroll through the archives (particularly the finding your way tag) will result in a number of posts written by and about women who have changed their career outlooks. Happy reading!
Sustainable Eating
Delft MaMa and knitter extraordinaire Cathy Delhanty has written two posts about sustainable eating in the past year. The first was written before we went into the first lockdown here in the Netherlands, and the second post was written a few months later, a revised look into sustainable eating while under lockdown. Enjoy the first post here and the second one here. I’ve always enjoyed reading about sustainable living and these two posts are no exception. You might also check out Julia Candy’s post about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling in Delft (among one of the most read posts on the blog)!
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerful tool in the backstage of the DMM website. It allows us to see all time popular posts on the blog in addition to the most visited pages on the Delft MaMa website. While these aren’t necessarily limited to posts published in 2020, it is good to take a look at them. We receive some good guidelines for future directions of the blog and website in terms of the information that can be expanded on or improved.
ALL TIME POPULAR POSTS
Interesting fact, since the relaunch of the DMM website (see Gabriela Ricci’s post), Getting Pregnant and DMM Activities pages have been the most visited pages! I’m privately wondering how many Corona babies are here thanks to the Getting Pregnant page! 😊
The most read post on the DMM blog has been, and continues to be, Learning Dutch in Delft. I’m curious if online opportunities have actually grown (and will continue to grow) in the past year compared to in-person learning opportunities. Maybe this post is ripe for a refresh?
Schools in Delft: what to expect continues to be a popular post. I’m not sure how many changes there might have been, other than the fact that you don’t need to sign up your child for school as soon as you’ve conceived. Still it would be so interesting to hear about the different experiences parents have had with their children’s education during the pandemic. I, for one, was thankful with how my daughter’s school handled the chaos of the pandemic. Although we all hope that the pandemic and restrictions will end soon, I think it would be wonderful to compile useful tips of what got families through the lockdowns, learning from home. I am sure the information will still be useful in one way or another!
Some other interesting posts that earned spots in the top 10 read posts on the blog:
10 things living in Netherlands has taught me,
How to reduce reuse and recycle in Delft, and
Closing reflections
Looking at the results of the polls and Google Analytics, the themes most interesting to readers of the Delft MaMa Blog appear to be: multilingualism, schooling, sustainability, and local life. I look at the theme of ‘local life’ to include the lump sum of life in the Netherlands: what it’s like to live here, setting up new professional goals and activities.
What patterns do you see, dear reader? What do you hope to see on the blog in the future?
I hope you will join me in wishing the Delft MaMa Blog a Happy 5th Blogiversary. Here’s to many more years to come as the blog continues to grow as a valuable resource for our community.
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