What Growing Up at Home collects, why, and how to get rid of it. Last updated in 2026.
Reading the site
Every article here is readable without an account, a login, or a single detail about you. Nothing is gated and there is nothing to agree to first.
The mailing list and how it actually works
There is a short signup box on the front page and another at the foot of each article. It is worth being precise about what it is, because it is not the usual thing. It is a plain mailto: form, which means it does not transmit anything anywhere by itself. Pressing Subscribe opens your own email program with a message already addressed to [email protected], and nothing at all reaches me until you press send in your own program. If you change your mind at that point, close the window and I never see it.
What arrives at my end is an ordinary email in an ordinary inbox. There is no mailing platform behind it, no signup service, no tracking pixel in anything I send back, and no record anywhere of whether you opened a message or clicked a link in it. I keep the addresses in a simple list and use it for one short note every few weeks. To come off it, reply with the word stop, or write to [email protected], and you are removed that week. The list is never sold, rented, swapped, or handed to anybody.
What gets measured
Anonymized traffic data may be collected: which pages are opened, roughly which country or region a visit came from, the device and browser type, and the page that linked here. I use it to decide what to write more of. It is not attached to a name and I make no attempt to work out who individual readers are.
Email you send me
If you write to me, your message and your address sit in my mailbox while I reply, and afterwards as a record of any correction that came out of it. They go nowhere else.
Cookies
The site sets a small number of cookies for basic function and anonymous measurement. Blocking them or clearing them in your browser breaks nothing here.
Links out
Some outbound links are affiliate links, explained in the affiliate disclosure. Once you follow one through to a retailer or an affiliate network, their privacy practices apply and I have no control over them. Photographs are served from this site rather than embedded from somewhere else.
Children
This site is about children but it is written for the adults raising them. It is not aimed at children under 13 and I do not knowingly collect anything from them. I also do not publish identifying details about my own kids, and I would ask you not to send me identifying details about yours.
Your rights
I do not sell personal information, and there is very little of it here to sell. If you are in California, the EU, or anywhere with comparable rules, and you want to know what is held or want it deleted, email [email protected]. It reaches me, not a department.