The Next Chapter

By Lou Elizabeth

As we edge towards the end of the summer term, I’ve found myself being asked the same question over and over again lately.

“So… what are you going to do when your youngest starts nursery?”

“Oh, I’ll go back to work. I’ll find something,” I hear myself saying casually in the school playground, as if I haven’t spent the last few months quietly wondering the exact same thing.

The truth is, I have started applying for jobs. I had my first interview yesterday. And while I’m not quite ready to openly discuss social work applications with almost strangers at 8:47am, the process has forced me to think carefully about what comes next. Not just professionally, but here too.

Because for the first time since I started writing online, I’ve realised that this very open, very honest version of the internet may no longer make sense for the life I’m moving into.

When I started Parenting Connected, I genuinely believed my social work career was behind me. That chapter felt firmly closed. I had no intention of ever going back.

But I’m learning that whenever I make grand declarations about life, life tends to gently laugh and hand me a completely different plan.

I once dramatically declared I would “never go back on the pill again” only to find myself doing exactly that fifteen years later. Apparently the old saying is true: never say never.

Because I never expected to return to a career where professional boundaries and privacy really matter, I’ve written here with a level of honesty that, looking back, was probably only possible because I thought this space existed in a completely separate chapter of my life.

And I don’t regret it.

This newsletter got me through some incredibly intense periods of parenting. The strange blur of survival mode where entire days revolve around snacks, naps, clean ups and trying not to lose your mind because somebody has cried over the shape of pasta.

But now, as my youngest prepares to start nursery and my oldest prepares for high school, something is shifting for me too.

For the first time in years, I can feel a little more space opening up around me.

A little more time to think.
A little more energy.
A little more curiosity about what I want the next decade of my life to actually feel like.

And with that, I’ve realised I no longer want to write exclusively about parenting.

Partly because I need to become more intentional about privacy as I potentially move back into social work. But also because, if I’m honest, I don’t have it in me to write a watered-down, sanitised version of parenting content either. The deeply personal essays only worked because they were deeply personal. Without that honesty, it stops feeling interesting to me.

So instead of forcing something that no longer fits, I’ve decided to let this space evolve.

Retract might be a better word.

If you scroll all the way back to the very beginning of this Substack, before Parenting Connected fully became Parenting Connected, you’ll find posts about ordinary family life. Recipes. Home projects. TV recommendations. Small routines. Family travel. Tiny ways to make life feel lighter and calmer.

Which, interestingly, is exactly what I now find myself wanting to return to.

So Parenting Connected is slowly becoming By Lou Elizabeth.

A softer, broader space about home, family life and becoming ourselves again after the survival-mode years of early parenting.

Over the summer I’ll be documenting what I’m calling:

One Last Summer Before Everything Changes

What our life looks and feels like right before the huge transition that arrives in August when:

• my youngest starts nursery

• my eldest starts high school

• I return to work

• and I step into an entirely new decade of my life

There will still be stories about parenting because being a mum is woven through absolutely everything in my life. But the focus will shift more towards lighter stuff.

Once my kids are all settled into their new routines in August I will be using my child free days to gently restore our family home after years of small children & stretched budgets. Think:

• easy DIY projects

• deep cleaning & decluttering

• home & interiors

• small gardening projects as a complete beginner as I turn 40

• organisation & creating calmer systems

• realistic family routines

• recipes & meal ideas

• books, TV & films worth recommending

• style, beauty & wellbeing

• and documenting this strange, exciting season of life as I slowly re-enter the world beyond full-time parenting

I want this space to feel like a deep breath rather than another corner of the internet shouting at you to optimise your life.

Which brings me to something new.

From Sunday, I’ll also be starting Journal Club for paid subscribers.

Each month will revolve around a specific theme, with weekly reflections, prompts and small rituals designed to help us move through life a little more intentionally.

This month’s theme is:

The Next Chapter

In under 40 days I turn 40 myself and, after four years of slowly rebuilding pieces of myself behind the scenes, this feels like the final gentle push into a completely new phase of life.

Not in a “become your best self” way.
More in a:
“What kind of woman do I actually want to become in this next decade?” kind of way.

Journaling has always been how I process life. I suspect that’s true for many of us.

I’ve kept journals for years and tend to group them by age. The journals from this past year are stacked together under “Year 39.” On my birthday I’ll begin a new one called “Year 40.”

I think each year deserves its own small archive & there’s something comforting about capturing life like this.

Year 38 began in NYC.

Alongside prompts & reflections, I’ll also be sharing parts of my own journaling process too. Sometimes that might be my own journal entries, sometimes small mindset shifts, sometimes the oddly specific things that help thoughts flow more easily onto paper (like using different coloured pens for the prompt and the answer because it somehow tricks your brain into responding more honestly).

Those more personal pieces will live behind the paywall as I become more intentional about privacy in this next chapter.

In this first month we’ll begin with the foundations:

What do we want from this next stage of life?
What are we taking with us?
What are we finally ready to let go of?

This isn’t just for women turning 40 either. It’s for anyone standing at the edge of a new chapter wanting to enter it with a little more intention.

Join Here.

Thank you for being here as this space changes shape a little.

Writing in public can be terrifying, but hearing from readers who see themselves in your words remains one of the loveliest parts of the internet.

Many of you have been here for a long time now, and I’m genuinely grateful for every comment, message, recommendation and conversation along the way.

I hope By Lou Elizabeth becomes a space filled with beautiful ordinary things:
good books, recipes worth repeating, homes slowly coming back to life, flowers on kitchen tables, films for rainy nights, routines that make mornings easier, ideas worth borrowing and small reminders that life does not need to be perfect to feel really, really good.