Read the rest of my Corona Lockdown diaries here.
I realised today that as of today, we have officially been in Coronavirus lockdown for six and a half weeks; longer than the summer holidays last (at least here in England).
We have been in lockdown for longer than the summer holidays last, but with nowhere to go.
No playgrounds, no zoos or farms or soft play centres, no cinemas, no sneaky McDonald’s when we can’t be bothered to cook, no family holidays, no visits to grandma, no holiday clubs.
No breaks.
Just one slow walk a day, the same four walls, and (if you’re lucky like we are) a garden to chuck the kids into occasionally.
The summer holidays can be rough, but holy shit.
I am not ashamed to admit that this 6-and-a-bit-weeks has been hard.
It’s been hard on the kids. It’s been hard on us.
Our routines are totally fucked, bedtime is a total joke, tensions are running high, tempers are at breaking point, bribery is the main currency, screentime is king. Thank god for Disney +.
And there is no immediate end in sight, which makes it even harder.
How do you keep it together for your children when you have no confidence in your leaders, and you’re scared yourself?
When you’ve lost your job and you don’t know how you’re going to pay for your mortgage?
When you’re terrified of going to the shops because no one else seems to be taking this seriously any more?
How do you tell your children that it’s going to be OK when you quite honestly have no idea how it’s going to be?
I have no idea.
I have got such comfort from the people on my social media pages and groups over the past 7 weeks and I just want to remind ALL parents right now that you are doing a BLOODY AMAZING JOB.
Be kind to yourselves.
(And no, I’m not drunk. More’s the pity).
Personally I’m just trying to take it one day at a time and hold on to the fact that this will be over, one day, and by then we will have got through it and we will probably be less inclined to complain about the summer holidays. Maybe.
Ps.
I’ve been doing this kind of thing long enough to know that the minute you say you’re struggling with anything relating to kids, there are dickheads out there who will say ‘why did you even have kids if you don’t want to spend time with them?’ or fucking stupid variations thereof.
Well, shit. My crystal ball must have malfunctioned because I… wait, NO ONE expected this would ever happen. No one could possibly have ever predicted, when planning their families and thinking about the happy times they’d share, that we would have the first generation of children ever who are not just off school for a long period of time, but who are expected to do remote learning. And that we would have to facilitate this whilst also working from home and at the same attempting to have active Zoom-based social lives in the tiny amount of child free hours left in order not to go crazy.
We love our children but this is fucking exhausting.
If you think we should suck it up without complaining at all because X, Y and Z have it worse then may I suggest you go fuck yourself, you are not wanted here.
(To make this more cheery, the picture is a lovely rainbow decoration that I saw in the woods today. I didn’t make it, obviously, because people that currently have enough flour to waste on salt dough crafting are another breed. But what a lovely idea. I hope it’s non toxic and squirrel proof!)
You do make me laugh (especially true of the ‘why did you have kids if….’ people).
My 2 are a bit older thankfully; the younger one has more or less stuck to her own timetable. She was gutted she had to hand some work in for something other than maths and wondered if the English and geography teachers were getting bored?
Older one has ASD; would have been doing his GCSEs this year so no work anyway. I keep telling him to go on the trampoline (PE), write to Grandma (English) or empty the dishwasher (general studies).
You are right about there being nowhere much to go but maybe the McDonalds drive thrus will open up again soon?