Diary of a family in quarantine #4

It’s been a month now that the McLure family of Smiths Beach have kept a Coronavirus lockdown diary with the Advertiser. Mum Lisa, a hairdresser and personal trainer, says in the past week she has found a “new normal” staying at home to school her two kids, Angus, in grade four at Cowes Primary and Evie, in grade one. Husband Tim is working hard, leaving home about 7.30am and coming back by about 6.30pm.

“Alcohol has been a big thing for a lot of people in lockdown. It has been a real rollercoaster for me and friends.
Last week I was a mess. With home schooling I’d get to the end of the day and think, thank heavens I can have a drink.

I’d drink three glasses of wine a night and wake up the next day and it was like starting behind the goal posts.

Because I felt like rubbish, I’d eat something sugary to get some energy, then I didn’t feel like exercising, so not moving induced more not moving.

I couldn’t dig myself out of it. It really affected my wellbeing. My poor body. For me it’s important to recognise how my body is feeling. There was clearly too much celebrating going on, it was out of control. So now we’ve decided not to celebrate getting through each day, but instead celebrate getting through each week with a drink on a Friday night.

Because I’d been celebrating so much last week I’ve noticed a massive difference in my fitness this week. Aside from limiting drinking, I’m also moving at least 20 minutes a day, a bike ride or a walk, anything. I find a little bit of exercise always becomes more.

To ensure I don’t have another week like last week, I’ve put in place some new ideas suggested by teachers, parents, friends, particularly around home schooling. I’m finding others have been struggling and we’ve all been reaching out to help one another. As soon as you put up your hand and say you’re not doing well people come out of everywhere to help.

Rather than have the kids hanging off the fridge door the whole day, every night I now make their school lunches – like I normally would – and that’s what they eat through the day.

This week I’ve put a bit more structure in the day – they definitely need some structure and also some freedom. By 9am the kids have to have had breakfast, brushed their teeth and be dressed, even if it is a onesie. We then sit down with the white board and watch videos from their teachers. That’s followed by recess at 10am where they have some fruit and then late morning we do the subjects they’re not so keen on.

From midday we have a two-hour break and get out of the house for exercise, and then in the afternoon we do the subjects they like.

Cowes Primary has done a fantastic job and created Wellness Wednesday, where they do specialist subjects like Japanese, PE, music and art. It’s brilliant.

I’ve tried every parenting style in the manual over these few weeks – being gentle, bribing, an authority figure – but I don’t want to be the bad guy, the teacher. I tell them I’m their helper. I try not to resent Tim for having time to himself at work, with grown-ups. I’m definitely looking forward to going back to work at the salon (Elements Hair Room in Cowes) one day a week next week, just to be with grown-ups and not talk about farts all day – I didn’t realise how much kids fart and I’m not the first person to say it. Those poor teachers.

I hate saying the phrase ‘stuck at home’. I have dropped everything to be with the kids. It had to be one of us and because my jobs went, it was me. It takes me back to when I first had babies, thinking he can go out but I have to stay here.

I do miss my own space and time --- even just getting used to the constant noise of children. But this week I realised I always used to say to myself I wish I had more time to spend with the kids and now that I’m going back to work I realise, hang on, this will be over soon, oh.

It’s like going on family holidays. The things you remember and look back on in 20 years aren’t the fact they drove you bonkers, but you remember the good times.

At the start of lockdown and home schooling it was a massive adjustment and at the start I was begging the government to reopen schools.

But now I’m taking as much positive out of it as I can. I’m taking a breath and valuing this time.”