with research confirming this<\/a>. Even with our fairly even split, I still find myself bearing much of the mental load, such as sorting out the grocery shopping, cooking dinner, printing the worksheets for the week\u2019s lessons, and liaising with the school over our children\u2019s return.<\/p>\nSince the schools have started reopening, I\u2019ve been struck by how many people have questioned my decision to return the children to school, compared to my husband. Almost everyone assumes it\u2019s a decision that I have made myself, in order to benefit myself, and not a decision that was made by the both of us to benefit our family as a whole. Women might have equal rights in law, but attitudes, particularly to mothers, still lag behind.<\/p>\n
My Kids Have Their Own Special Brand Of Creativity<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Social media has been awash with beautiful creative projects that have been produced by children across the country during lockdown. Children have adorned their windows with rainbows, painted pretty pebbles that have been used to create a sort of memorial to all that has occurred, left chalk drawings on streets to make people smile, and created posters thanking the work of the NHS staff.<\/p>\n
But not my children. My children have refused to have anything to do with rainbows. The chalk I gave them to decorate the pavement outside our house was mushed up and added to dirty rainwater collected in a bucket that was then spread all over my lawn. Fimo clay was used to create Minecraft style TNT, and my eldest thought it would be hilarious to add a specific appendage to my youngest\u2019s model of \u201cForky\u201d from Toy Story. Our \u201cart classes\u201d largely result in drawings from my eldest of doom bringing monsters whilst my youngest proudly presents me with pictures she drew of me with the largest belly possible.<\/p>\n
I Need To Work Harder On My Children\u2019s Social Skills & Manners<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not feral. They remember to say please and thank you when poked and generally manage to avoid being rude to other people. But social distancing has brought new challenges. My children got the idea of keeping away from other people fairly early on. Better than some adults in fact. But they are yet to grasp onto that British trait of being discreet. Instead, anyone we meet on the paths in the woods near our house is met with yells of \u201cQUICK! THERE ARE PEOPLE COMING. MOVE OUT OF THE WAY! WE MUST NOT TOUCH THEM BECAUSE OF THE GERMS.\u201d<\/p>\n
I should probably add, this isn\u2019t said in fear. They don\u2019t know the full details of the virus and just understand that their germs could make elderly people very poorly. So it\u2019s not fear that drives them to perform the modern equivalent of a leper unclean bell ring. They\u2019re just totally oblivious of the need for subtlety.<\/p>\n
Kids Can Grow A Ridiculous Amount In Three Months<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
My eldest child lives in joggers with elastic waist bands whilst my youngest lives in leggings. So when they were finally allowed back in school after three months it was a bit of a shock to discover that NONE of their uniform trousers fit anymore. Including the shorts I purchased new in during the week before lockdown.<\/p>\n
I think my children may have been lying to me when they swore blind that they definitely do get three snacks a day at school and therefore should do at home as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We may have only been in lockdown for just over three months but for us parents, it has felt like an eternity. As restrictions start to ease many of us are starting to reflect on how things have changed, and what lessons have been learned. As a working parent of two primary school children, it has certainly been an education for everyone in the household. I\u2019m So Over Minecraft Before lockdown, I could at least muster some enthusiasm when the iPad was thrust into my face with the words \u201cLook at what I did on Minecraft Mummy,\u201d even if I <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2865,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions\/2865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}