Dawn's Dry Arch Blog - Week 2
Yeeehhaaaaa we made it to week two!!! Result.
I had expected it to be a better week, not sure that it was……
Have my children never been fed? Seriously now, has anyone else found this? My role has suddenly changed from Play Coordinator to a 24 hour Cafe Proprietor; and to be fair the kids aren’t the only customers. I have discovered a new word to describe this phenomenon, it’s called "Chompawhomping" - Eating so much that you get knocked down, but you get up again, cause nothings gonna keep you down. (you’re singing it in your head now aren’t you).
How could I turn this into a maths lesson? Introduce snack rationing time, or hide and seek snack, as that’s the only way there will be schoolwork done in this house! Although I have taught my dog Willow to spell, W.A.L.K, C.A.T and P.E.E so that’s a little bit of academic success and I'm owning it.
So, I noticed a trend this week. Night times and strangely the weekend were the hardest parts of the week to navigate and I have been wondering why? Tiredness all round is most definitely a big contributor. It is impossible to get any of these children to sleep as our routines are at holiday status. With two teenagers I find its part of the course; late nights rocking downstairs at 12. But for the little one, we are finding this all more difficult to manage, creating new challenges in our household this week.
Meltdowns, thankfully we have haven’t had too many of these in the last while, but this week we had some really tough periods of agitation, where it all just got to be too much. It’s to be expected with the dramatic changes to routine and struggling with the fact that there is no end date; WE CANNOT TELL HIM WHEN IT WILL END. I’m not gonna lie it was tough, and a bit of panic set in that we wouldn’t be able to calm him. Then I realised what I already knew; we are his parents, we know him best and we’ve got this. So, I had to dig out my big girl pants, haul them on again and step up to the mark.
Remember, at all times, at the hardest of times for everyone involved is when all our children need our love and our calm the most.
Did you ever think that the DPD man, the Amazon man or our fabulous Post Woman, (who so often tells me to step away from Ebay!) would ever have imagined that in these long repetitive days they would become the biggest excitement in our simple lives? So a white van drives into the street, my husband is sits bolt upright, excitement flashing in his eyes, the white van of expectation hopes and dreams enters our cul de sac…..and slows… ohohohoho, it stops….. agggh BETWEEN our house and next door! Is the huge parcel for us or for them??? All eyes on the oblivious delivery man as he slides open the side door to the van of everything wonderful. Husband is on the edge of his seat, poised and ready to spring....... Ahhhhhhh nooo, parcel is for next door.
The disappointment in the air is tangible, husband settles himself back into sofa, sighs and announces he feels like he’s been cheated on. I couldn’t breathe with laughter, this is what it’s come to, the highs and the lows on the rollercoaster of stay at home isolation!
Let’s talk about Covid19 Haircuts, another source of lockdown entertainment in this house. Take plenty of pictures cause in years to come this will be the best topic of conversation the "Daddy Buzz Cut". My daughter and I got the bleach out, the aim was a Billie Eilish inspired look, a beautiful top half of deep green hair fringed with black. Well it will be when we get the fixer dye; Grott Bags Green, that was the resulting shade! It was as funny as it was scary - my advice never home bleach, but hey, I’m very hopeful that we'll get it back to normal in time for the return to school.
Ok, so right now, my dear seven year old is now running amok after the dogs, it’s chaotic, loud and crazy and I can’t hear myself think!! The joys of working from home.
The anxiety that consistently bubbles below the surface is overflowing less this week. It is absolutely amazing how we humans can manage and adapt to new situations. But still there is no denying the struggle, it is persistent and remains. What I can tell you is that you are not alone, this is not an easy gig lovely people, Parenthood and caring is not easy at the best of times, challenging, tiring and lonely. As the Dry Arch Centre reminds us “It takes a whole village to raise a child” and we are a village. Reach out, when it gets tough call us, call a friend who gets you. When this all passes, and it will, remember how we saw each other through, the community that we belong to, the kindness of strangers and how our children will see a world much changed.
For right now, and until next week we are a home in lockdown loving each other through it (mostly).
Let me know how you are, let’s talk.
