2025 Year in Review

I'm so glad you're here.

Happy blurry-week-between-Christmas-and-New-Year’s, friends! As we close out our year together, I wanted to take a moment to reflect with gratitude on where we’ve been.

The Connected Family 2025 Milestones

We’ve officially completed year two of The Connected Family, and I’m proud, grateful, and humbled by how far we’ve come.

Our community crossed 3,200 readers! At this time last year we numbered about 2,400. While growth at times can feel slow and frustrating, looking back helps reset my perspective. If you’ve ever shared TCF with a friend, thank you!! Word of mouth referrals are the best and most powerful, forever and always.

• TCF readers live in all 50 states and 54 countries around the world. North Carolina, Texas, California, Georgia, and Tennessee hold the top five spots!

• While I treasure each and every reader, there were a number of “new subscriber” alerts this year that made my eyes pop: editors from major publications I’ve long admired, the founder of the buzziest screen-free tool of 2025, and several writers I consider minor celebrities in their respective arenas. Whether I know your name or not, though, I’m convinced that if you’re here, you’re part of the kindest and most thoughtful crew around: I’m inspired every week by your ideas, your passion, and your dedication to creating better childhoods for your own kids — and kids you may never know.

• I welcomed my first two guest writers. Sara helped us better understand school-issued devices and Greta walked us through how to talk to our kids about porn. I also published an interview with Nancy about her decision to not share her fifth pregnancy until her daughter was born. Grateful to all of them, and I’m excited for you to see what I have in the works for 2026! :)

• I received several embargoed press releases and advanced copies of books. As a nosy Enneagram 5 and avid reader, I loved getting the scoop and sharing it with you.

• I experimented with Substack’s capabilities more than ever before, A/B testing subject lines and penning my first Notes. Up next: maybe finally updating my design?!

• I’m incredibly grateful to the generous readers who supported TCF financially through a paid subscription. If getting access to the top paywalled posts from the year below — plus the full archives and every weekly post going forward — sounds fun, please consider joining!

The most popular posts of 2025

I sent 49 newsletters this year, each one carefully considered and lovingly written. Of those, these ten rose to the top in terms of number of views:

1. Does home size affect family culture and connection? (February)

2. 21 views of the village (May)

3. 10 things to do when you’re bored instead of reaching for your phone (June)

4. 5 digital-to-embodied swaps to consider (March)

5. ChatGPT, our favorite parts of the new house, how to give kids independence, and more (November)

6. How to raise independent and confident kids (September)

7. My tech-related goals for 2025 (January)

8. 7 things on my November holiday checklist (November)

9. Friendship before social media (August)

10. Let’s talk about the village (April)

Of those ten, however, only one made my personal top five list. These are the posts I’m most proud to have written — ones that I look back on with greatest fondness and satisfaction, grateful to have effectively communicated something that matters deeply to me. In no particular order:

Things that require attention

It is a gift to be observed

What we lose when we lose a physical record of childhood

It’s party time

Friendship before social media

(Just for fun — the most popular posts of all time are this one about the Brick, this one about fun coupons for kids, and my review of The Anxious Generation.)

The top commenters of 2025

Digital endeavors can feel lonely. They have their place, of course, and I’m so grateful an online platform like Substack lets us compare notes, share ideas, and spur each other on across distance. In addition to my deep-seated desire to pass on the few things I know, it is your comments — your questions, your additions, your encouragement — that keep me coming back each week. More than 125 women and men chimed in this year, and in gratitude, I wanted to recognize the top ten contributors to the comment section in 2025, many of whom have championed me for over a decade and several who are dear, in-person friends:

1. Victoria B.

2. Kelly S.

3. Susan B.

4. Kristen M.

5. Abby P.

6. Kerstin T.

7. Pressley F.

8. Ginna N.

9. Katie R.

10. Sydni J.

I’ve emailed Victoria, Kelly, and Susan to offer them a TCF-approved thank you gift of their choice: a Brick, a $25 Bookshop.org gift card, or Rifle Paper Company’s five-year journal. Maybe next year it could be you! :)

What’s next

Coming up, I’ll be sharing my 2026 tech-related goals, my thoughts on sharing about my children online (plus perspectives from several friends), how to encourage independence in kids, a landline phone review, musings about true influence, and a bit about how we’re marking June’s tenth birthday. I’ve loosely outlined my plan for the first three months of newsletters, but I always want to hear what you’d most like to read about. Please leave any requests or ideas in the comments!

Happy new year, friends. Wishing you a bright, beautiful, meaningful, memorable, and connected year ahead.

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