Last Updated on 11 May 2020 by Colette
And so ends our 7th week in Lockdown in a haze of confusion, frustration and unanswered questions from Bozza. I don’t know about you but the dates for pubs and restaurants reopening isn’t top of my list of priorities right now – I want to know about how and when we can widen our social circles, about when I can see my parents, my sister and my closest friends and how things will look when the kids go back to school.
Two of our three are in the year groups which will be among the first to be welcomed back to school – and initially I was thrilled about this. As a Year 6 parent I want to see Ben have some closure on his primary school experience, to say thank you to his teachers and goodbye to his friends (the majority of whom will go to a different school in September) and to have some sort of transition to high school – but realistically there will be no Year 6 residential, no special assemblies, end of year show or any of the celebration that normally comes in the last half term of Year 6 because how can there be? And as a Year 1 parent? As you know, Amy has been really struggling over the last few weeks so the idea of getting her back to school and some semblance of normality fills me with joy – but it won’t be normality will it? Of course we don’t know how it will look yet but we do know that our youngest children are the ones who will struggle most to keep their distance from their friends who they so desperately want to to play with and their teachers they want to hug. Amy’s mental health is my biggest concern – and I’m not sure going to back to a school setting she no longer recognises is the right thing? I guess we have to withhold judgement on that till things become more clear.
So, as for many of you I’m sure, the end of week 7 has been a tough one – waiting for news, hoping for clear plans but then not really liking what I’ve been told!
In terms of the rest of our week, it’s been another long one. Each week I sit down to write these Lockdown diary updates, I cast my mind back to Monday and think, “God that feels like ages ago” – today is no different. I tend to make quick notes as the week goes by to make sure I remember what we’ve done but I forgot a couple of times this week and can I set my mind on those days? No chance. Who knows what we did? Probably the same as every other day! At some point during any given day, we will have walked Poppy, coerced Amy to do some school work, complained about the state of the kids bedrooms or the front room, argued about whether it’s the right time for a snack and listened to much bickering. And repeat.
On Monday we settled on a slow and steady start to the week, putting off school work in favour of a sunny walk, fresh air and climbing trees. Ben and Chloe got their school work done after lunch without a fuss. Amy – well she got her work done. The afternoon was peppered with arguments and bickering and in the end the big two were sent to their rooms. Ben managed to lose himself his YouTube privileges – which is not what anyone wants over 6 weeks into lockdown. I actually spent quite a chunk of the day at my desk but mostly just getting bits of admin done as I am generally interrupted too often to really crack on with writing or editing video. By the by the time I get the kids to to bed, I’m too tired to be bothered with opening up my laptop to do anything else. It’s definitely a struggle to keep on top of my work at the moment – though in fairness it’s mostly things I want to write / film rather than stuff for clients which affords me more flexibility and I know I’m lucky in that sense.
Tuesday morning saw Dave head out to work in the office as has become routine now. Me, the girls and Pops walked to Erin’s to drop off a craft activity for Amy and Erin to do over skype in the afternoon. A walk to the Butler’s is just nicely far enough for Poppy and gives Ben chance to get a head start on his work (for some reason Amy’s laptop doesn’t like Seesaw so she keeps having to borrow Ben’s). After lunch, Amy and Erin spent about an hour chatting to each other whilst doing their collages. I know I mentioned last week that their afternoon tea swap helped to give their conversation focus and this did much the same – definitely give it a go if you’ve got little ones struggling to deal with video calling friends and relations.
Wednesday and Thursday have blurred into one – I can’t remember much of what we did beyond Amy video calling Aunty M & Uncle Mike to read to them on Wednesday night! (This has become a regulary thing during lockdown) Actually, I think I spent much of Thursday painting the other side of the back garden fence – I’d been putting it off for weeks either becuasse it was too cold / too windy or I just coudn’t be bothered. On Thursday I thought, I’ll just get one panel done but actually managed most of the fence – there was one panel left to do when it started raining. (Oh and a panel behind a bush which I can’t get to – I had hoped Dave would lift the panel out for me but he said he’ll just paint it instead) So both sides of the house have nice, freshly painted grey fences now which look really smart. We’re still waiting one one replacement panel to arrive and I’m still trying to decide whether to paint the back fence grey or leave it blue. At some point over the two days Dave finished off the new patio and he and Ben put together our new garden furniture. We’ve never really had anywhere to sit comfortably in our garden so this was a real treat!
Of course Friday was a bank holiday just to confuse us all – I spent all day thinking it was Saturday! We spent the morning working in the garden and then in the afternoon we had a socially distant street party to celebrate VE Day. Our neighbours went to great effort to decorate our street with bunting and flags and it really did look glorious. When it was all going up on Thursday night, Chloe told me she loved VE day because everyone was happy! And she was right, on Thursday night the sun was shining and our street was full of laughter as people decorated their houses for the party. We moved our new garden furniture to the front of the house and sat on the lawn, listening to music and drinking gin (me) and beer (him). I put together an afternoon tea of fancy sandwiches and shop-bought cakes.
The party was really very lovely because it was so nice to see and hear people enjoying themselves but stressful in terms of trying to maintain distance – particularly for the children who just wanted to go and play with everyone. Dave and I didn’t leave our own garden but in the end we let the kids whiz up and down the street on their scooters on the basis that they would always be moving away from people and if we saw them struggling to maintain their distance we’d bring them in – I’m sure some of you will disagree with our decision on that one but all we can do is our best in any given moment. This was our reality and I’d rather share that with you than hide or pretend – particularly when last week so many of you thanked me for being really honest about hard everything is in my last post.
With the weather being so glorious on Saturday, Dave and I agreed that we’d get garden jobs done in the morning but stop at lunchtime and have the afternoon off. It was far too hot for Dave to be digging and we both wanted to just appreciate the new garden furniture in the sunshine. I managed to lie on the sofa in the back garden with my headphones on listening to music for ages and nobody came to ask me a single question – it’s probably the most peace I’ve had in weeks! We even rocked out the BBQ – something we’ve rarely bothered to do at home because we’ve had nowhere to sit and the garden has never been our favourite spot! Hopefully the time and money we are investing in our garden at the moment will be well worth it over the coming months at home!
And so today, the weather turned and from lying in the garden in a vest top yesterday, I was layered up in my hoodie again for dog walking this morning! We had a fairly steady day – I took Amy and Poppy out this morning while Dave cracked on with digging the edging into the other side of the garden and then later in the afternoon I took Chloe and Poppy out – taking a divide a conquer route to give both girls some time on their own.
This evening was all about the Prime Minister’s announcement and you already know my thoughts on that. Once it had finished I immediately dialed into a family video call to see what everyone made of the announcements and to express my frustrations that he hadn’t made it clear when or how we might be able to see each other. Like all of you, I just want to be able to see my family now.
I honestly think 3 weeks is a long time with this – we really will learn a lot more in that time. They are aware mental health of children and adults is of utmost importance, and I don’t think they’re expecting more than 15 per class to turn up. My son is due back, and has already said he’ll be really happy to go back to school, but as soon as he heard this news said he didn’t want to go. It’s scary and we can’t force anyone to do something that they feel unsafe doing. We’ve said, let’s wait and see. If it carries on as it is, the NW will be back on lockdown and the schools here won’t be opening anyway!
Yes I do think there is a real risk that nothing will happen on 1st June anyway! I think Amy will want to go back – but we’ve said we will wait and see how things look for our school, give her the chance to go and if it’s more unsettling for here we’ll bring her back out again.
Aww such lovely photos. Yes it’s a touch on regarding schools opening. I work in a primary school and very anxious about the new measures. I do feel sorry for the year 6’s too. Ours is the same, no special assembly, no residential but I know we will do something to make it memerable for them.
It’s such a shame that they are missing this rite of passage isn’t it – the end of Year 6 should be such a lovely time.