Parenting | The new regime…

By Jo Dunbar

Today my elder son finished school for the foreseeable future while my youngest son’s pre-school journey was cut dramatically short. It’s been a hard day. Life as we know it has altered and is about to change significantly more. It’s the extra-curricular parts of our children’s lives that have been curtailed, too. Swimming lessons have ended while Rainbows, Beavers and sports clubs are all cancelled.

I can just about get my head round supervising schoolwork at the kitchen table while keeping my sons amused with a mix of games, baking, fresh air and their collection of toys. Juggling that with my job and a homeworking husband is another matter. But family time, the time we habitually spend visiting other people, taking trips to new places or even catching the bus or Metro into town won’t be happening for a long time. And that’s the part I am dreading.

Seeing friends and family is a huge part of our day-to-day lives. It’s bizarre to sketch out plans for play dates whereby we’ll accompany another family on a walk or scooter session – all the time keeping two metres apart. The majority of the boys’ grandparents are off-limits. Choosing to self-isolate, we are relying on FaceTime which works fine for adults, but my sons are asking when we can visit Grandma and Grandpa – usually people we see twice a week. In my dwindling armoury of ways to stay in touch, I have dug out postcards which can form handwriting practice when we are inevitably home educating.

Screen time is often cited as a guilt-inducing example of bad parenting. I’m already erasing that attitude from my mind: whether we like it or not, there’s going to be more TV in our lives. I’ve been downloading a few ‘educational’ programmes from the TV planner in an attempt to avoid back-to-back Fireman Sam.