You might find too, that the move will be very positive for your relationship with Mr Frog with enough distance between you to rid your friendship of the awkwardness. With this distance, I would also imagine that Mr Frog might not feature so often, he may not even read it so often as his life begins to move on.

Obviously, I have no real idea what I’m talking about as I don’t know either of you, but I’m just offering my 2 cents based on what I take from your writing…but I think things can only get better for you from here. The move might be very hard at first (any transition period is always hard) but ultimately, you are doing what you feel is best for you and Tadpole and that can only be a positive thing. I’m sure all your readers will be looking forward to reading about this new phase in your life.

Courage!

Nor do I think it’s any kind of ‘massage’ to affirm that your writings do engender very real feelings of ‘care’ and ‘affection’ for you (& yours)from people who may never encounter you in real life… only out there in cyberspace. That’s great!! Why not!!

I notice that a number of other respondents who clearly admire your blog also worry a little about how Tadpole might, in the future, feel about her ‘privacy’. But just as much, and I expect you may already be ahead of me in this, the very worst thing that any child ever wants to kow about is that his/her parents have a sex-life! Oh! the humiliation and shame of knowing that mum and dad ‘do it’… and at their age,.. and that their friends might find out!..(never mind that if they didn’t do it they wouldn’t then have had any need to worry about it at all!) Imagine then how Tadpole might feel, at a certain age, to know that mum discusses fairly intimate details on her blog site. Now I know that out there are plenty of readers who take a different view and who urge you to write whatever you will, and to hell with the consequences……..

but,I am guessing that you will gradually fine-tune the subject matters of your posts… not because I or anyone else wants you to do so but because you yourself will so determine. And I’m dammed sure that your future posts will be just as fantastic as they always have been up until now.

[Warning, practical advice:] About the lice, Antipo Déesse is absolutely right that you will not be able to avoid them in any school in France, so don’t choose the school that way! My kids spent years getting lice every couple of months. Luckily there’s not much stigma in France! The secret to prevention if there is a lice infestation at school is to comb Tadpole’s hair (AND yours!) with a finetooth comb all over her scalp before she goes to bed and when she wakes up. Those little electronic combs are great but they’re expensive and tend to stop working before long. Don’t use that nasty chemical stuff on her head unless you really have to. Get a metal comb with *long* teeth and that will do the job. Ugh….It makes me itch just thinking about it!

But at the same time, I have to say that it’s hard not to take some of them personally. When I’m feeling low (and my life right now is a series of dizzying highs and pretty desolate lows, which my writing may or may not reflect) a few scathing comments can be tough to deal with. Happily, the positive ones, like the people who write to say they have just read all 150,000+ words of this blog and loved it, usually balance things out.

I wonder sometimes how healthy it is doing this at all. AM I seeking validation from strangers about how I live my life? That can’t be healthy.

All I know is that I’ve thought seriously about stopping, and have come to the conclusion it would feel like losing a limb. I am blogging less, but I don’t want to stop.

And I won’t be turning off the comments any time soon either.

Maybe we should ask ourselves what motivates us to have strong opinions on Petite’s life one way or the other … maybe we’d find it a little useful, and more honest, if we wondered more about that?

Hmmm, is that all I wanted to say?
Yes, I believe so. :)