Things that are better about this lockdown

I won't lie, as a family we are finding this lockdown much more difficult than the previous ones. Although our school has been great with the home learning provision, both the children are struggling. It's partially to do with the screen heavy workload, but mainly down to the social integration that they are missing out on.

I know that this is a problem for all children over the world, and I do worry about the long term repercussions for all children. I'm hoping that if we can get through the next few weeks (months?) it will all be fine once they are settled back at school, hopefully this time for good.

I'm really trying my hardest to be there for the children and try to maintain a positive outlook. Hopefully it will help both me and them! So in that spirit, here are some things that are better about this lockdown than the previous ones.

This time I feel that the end is in sight. The vaccination programme seems to be going really well, and although I'll be at the bottom of the list for a vaccine I know that this is because I am at a low risk of becoming seriously ill with Covid. I'll feel much happier when I know that the most at risk people have been vaccinated, and hopefully that will be very soon.

We are set up with regular food deliveries. In the summer we signed up to the Tesco Delivery Saver and the husband is on the ball with booking delivery slots well in advance. So far we've been pretty satisfied with the service (apart from this morning when our vegetarian pizza was substituted with a pepperoni one, grrr.)

There seem to be no major food shortages. There are a few things from our regular list that we've not always been able to get but there have been alternatives, and I'm confident that if we desperately needed something we could pop to a local shop and pick it up. 

Our online learning provision is very good. It has always been good but this time they've really hit the ground running and both teachers and children are confident with what they are doing. Over the last few weeks our school has done really well at adding in some extra lessons like PE and music alongside the basics, which help to make the day more interesting. There are also some scheduled live lessons which give me a bit of a break during the day. 

We can still meet one other person for exercise. I have only actually done this once back in November, and I don't plan to again in the near future. But it's nice to know that the option is there if I need it!

There is nothing left to be cancelled. All we have is rescheduled tickets to the Hella Mega tour in June, but I'm pretty certain now that won't be going ahead. Not like last year when we had a string of holidays and events that we watched slowly get cancelled one by one.

No school run. I really don't miss the school run at this time of year when it's cold and rainy and I have to drive through the traffic then hang around outside for twenty minutes between pick ups. It also gives me an extra couple of hours in my day!

Lots of family time. Yes, it's very hard work, and sometimes I am just desperate for some time to myself. But I'm really trying to make the effort to enjoy spending time with the children and hopefully help their mental health too. We've been playing board games during their lunch break, working on our Animal Crossing island together once they've finished for the day, and today we had a teddy bears picnic in the living room!

Hopefully concentrating on the positives will help us all to get through this difficult time!