I have decided to write a weekly diary of our time through the Coronavirus pandemic. To keep for the future. It’s such an unprecedented time and full of so many mixed feelings and events we have never encountered before it is hard to process it all.
28th April
As expected, Center Parcs emailed today to say that out break in May half term has been cancelled. I’m sad as we love Center Parcs and we were also going to be away for my birthday. But we knew it was going to happen. We have been given the choice of requesting a refund or getting a £100 discount if we rebook for a future date. We had originally discussed rebooking for October half term, but this feels too soon now. Like things still won’t be back to normal. As we’re going with friends we’re just debating rebooking for next year instead or getting a refund. I think if we are to rebook, next year makes more sense giving things a time to settle down and hopefully a vaccine. My worry is, we were insured before as we booked before the pandemic and we won’t be this time. So this is a risk if we rebook for next year.
29th April
Aria’s really struggling today. It’s not like her she is usually a sunny little girl. But she is tired and low and after watching her this morning I have decided we’re going to skip school today. We’re doing painting and drawing and Logan wanted to learn Scratch on the computer so we’re doing that instead. We finished the day with a film – Gnomeo and Juliet. It was the right decision to abandon school work she was much more settled come bed time.
1st May
We’ve had two really bad nights with Logan. Not getting him to sleep until at least 9pm. He has suspected autism, and him struggling to get to sleep is not a new thing, especially when he’s anxious about school. But he’s been sleeping so much better in lockdown where he knows he’s going to be at home the next day. Getting to the bottom of things of chatting with him, it’s a mixture of anxiety about what is going on in the outside world and a little bit too much screen time as he says he is hearing and seeing things after do working on the computer.
My children don’t normally have that much screen time, but all of the school work is set on it with videos etc so I think I need to reduce this next week and come up with different methods to teach him myself. We have agreed no screens and only a little TV over the weekend to see if that makes him settle.
3rd May
I kind of lost it this morning. I just needed a moment when I wasn’t Mum. Where I could take a moment and not having my attention demanded wherever I looked. My husband has been working 12/13 hour days and has been on call both days this weekend. While I’m very grateful my husband has work, so grateful. There’s not very much time for me to not be Mum in there. To just be me.⠀
I’ve said before, we’ve been trying not to go out for our daily exercise. The risks of 3 of us being asthmatic, the fact we are privileged enough to have a big garden. But today I escaped all on my own just for a little while on my lovely bike. I think I must have cycled about 4-5 miles ish, not a long way. But it was nice to get out on my own. Enjoy the fresh air, have just my own company, and I came back feeling so much better and ready to again face the challenges of life in lockdown with 3 children. I hope I can take it out again soon.
Tonight lots of news sites have been speculating about when schools will go back. This is driving me crazy and makes me anxious. Some have said as early as the 1st June. Which just feels far too early for me. I just don’t know how you can get young children to socially distance? Then when you get to nurseries and pre-schools that task seems utterly impossible. After chatting to my husband, we are going to wait until the announcement, look at the stats and figures and decide what is right for out children. We don’t want to home educate them at all, but we don’t want them going back when it’s not safe either.
4th May
Back to home school, it feels a bit like Ground Hog day. We have days when we do really well and days when it feels like pulling teeth. Days when my daughter in particular can be challenging. My older son in general loves to learn, my frustration with him tends to be around his listening.
I have days when I really enjoy it and days when it is very challenging. And yet I still don’t want them to go back to school yet.
Logan was so much more settled after no screens over the weekend, so that’s in my mind as I plan school work through the week too. Reducing that in order to be mindful of his emotional health.
My husband is unwell today, he has an ear infection. It is the first time we’ve had to contact the doctors since all of this began, although I have heard anecdotally from people what it’s like. They contacted him first by telephone, then he has to go to the practise, ring the bell and he was admitted to for a test and his prescription was sent to a pharmacy for him to collect.
I went to collect the items from the pharmacy, there was a queue out of the door as only two people were allowed in the shop. But it moved pretty quickly. It’s so weird and so alien to have to remember to stand apart from everyone.
It’s the bank holiday weekend and VE Day coming up. Other than my husband not having to work it doesn’t really feel like a bank holiday. We’re working on a big project in the garden, so that is exciting and gives us something to look forward to. I am also planning VE Day activities to do with the children too. Really missing going out at the moment, but at least we are all well.