Home schooling. Working from home. Managing change in a hugely uncertain time with no end in sight. Not the easiest To Do list for anyone, but as a parent, particularly of traumatised children, it is rock hard with screams on.
Your To Do list starts with YOU. No really. It does.
Your #1 priority is to keep yourself sane. Because if you crumble, if your tank is empty, then there’s nothing left to hold your family together. So here are just a few ways that might just help you stay the right side of crazy (a little bit bonkers but not full on coocoo).
News? Shut UP!
It is a time of huge change for the entire world and it’s easy to feel we need to keep in touch with the spread and impact of this global pandemic. Yes and No. Once or twice a day is enough, not 24/7. Mute the news and Boris.
Slack Cutting 101
Feeling the pressure to recreate school at home? Stop. Stop expecting the impossible from yourself, just because the media believe that you can – and should – do it all. Therein lies the kind of stress what will give you diabetes and cirrhosis once this is all over.
We’ve tried everything (no schedule, all schedule, incentives) and to be honest, some days the kids (one or both) are willing to learn, some days inviting them to breakfast in a sing-song voice turns them into spinning, spitting children from the Exorcist.
Cut yourself some slack. A bit more. LOTS more.
Make your life easy by reducing your job to the bare minimum: keeping yourself and your family as safe as possible given the circumstances.
Completing tasks set by school is optional. Baking is optional. Happiness is desirable but often out of your (sole) control. Staying sane is essential, which brings us onto giggling…
The Antidote to Lockdown
Laughter is the antidote to stress, so not just welcome as a distraction, but it also strengthens our immune system. You’re welcome. As a doctor (not a medical one), I prescribe a minimum of one daily dose of piss-your-pants comedy to get you through this weirdness.
Here are my sanity-saving favourites:
- The Sh*g, Married, Annoyed Podcast with Chris and Rosie Ramsey is my Go To listen when it’s gone tits up (headphones very much required). Hilarious and light-hearted, it has sixty-plus episodes in its back catalogue but I love the lockdown ones best.
- Comedy Series such as Community and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (both Netflix) or our new favourite ‘Breeders’ (Sky or NOW TV). It’s like Outnumbered, but post watershed. Piss funny and all about the struggle of parenting. Lots of swearing.
- Phoning a friend (FaceTime, if Andy isn’t hogging the wifi for work – how very dare he?). Share the misery and laugh about just how forking hard this all is. How it sucks. How many times you’ve cried or lost the plot today. Even when we’re clinging onto sanity with our fingertips, surfing a sh*tstorm of negative experiences, it’s rare that I hang up without feeling lighter and happier than before.
Stream It
Thank God the internet is okay.
Adult time in the evening has become essential as an antidote to the daily struggle. We’ve even instigated weekly Friday date-nights: the kids read to themselves (read: bounce on the beds) and wine o’clock starts at 7.30pm so we can watch a movie in one sitting (luxury!)
We’ve got into the habit of streaming the National Theatre Live events, starting with One Man, Two Guvnors (hilarious slapstick), as well as the jaw-dropping Frankenstein (incredible and mesmerising). But sometimes we haven’t the energy or concentration to wade through three hours of Shakespeare and need something suited to lockdown brain. Like the fabulous Richard Curtis film ‘Yesterday’. Lovely, sweet, touching escapism. Just what the doctor ordered.
This Too Shall Pass
Times are tough. But one day lockdown and the threat of Covid-19 will end and something akin to normality (distant cousin perhaps) will return. Hang in there. You can do this.
Look after yourself, because YOU matter more than you know.
Hit Me Up
With another weekend looming, hit me up with your favourite funny or touching films/ podcasts/ and tips for getting through this with a small sliver of sanity intact…
