Pre pandemic we only used to drink at weekends, but everyday was a weekend now!
I’m not going to lie, the first week of home schooling was chaos! Trying to stick to a routine, make sure school work wasn’t neglected, and still keep on top of my own work, was challenging, not just for me but for Kai too. It wasn’t his ‘norm’ he was completely out of routine and he was being taught by his Mum who isn’t a teacher, just like the majority of the kids across the whole of the UK!
Kai has Cerebral Palsy and to add to that he has autistic traits and tendencies. At first he adapted surprisingly well to the change, although he needed lots of persuading to sit and do his school work. We just concentrated on the main subjects such as maths, reading, handwriting & comprehension, and tried to make it as fun as possible. We just didn’t have the time to fit in all the subjects we were sent, so I figured it was best to focus on the most important subjects.
I was furloughed as soon as the scheme was available, as was the entire company I worked for, so I was unsure if I would have a job after all of this was over, hence the reason I decided to start my own business. Dave was also furloughed on the same day I was, so we were both available to help Kai with his school work. I say that, but Dave has very little patience compared to me so it mostly fell on me to do the home schooling, whilst Dave enjoyed doing the fun bits with him like playing football in the garden.
We enjoyed many weeks of quality time together as a family but after a few weeks the boredom and hot weather drove us to drink nearly every day! Pre Pandemic we only used to drink at weekends, but everyday was a weekend now! Lockdown brought all of our neighbours closer together which was very welcomed, as they are also so nice! We all look out for each other now and have had many social distanced ‘get togethers’ outside. Although we now have a reputation as alcoholics with the amount of recycling we have generated, we have definitely won the record for the most bags in our street!
Dave was invited back to work in May, he was glad to get back to normality, well as normal as it could be working from home! But now we had a bit more of a routine in place. We began noticing that Kai was getting more emotional and sensitive about really simple things, then came the meltdowns, which got worse and worse each day. When lock down measures started to ease in July we went up north to see my family. Kai had the worst meltdown that I had seen him ever have (at that time). As we were about to leave my brothers house, he started crying, screaming, kicking and hitting himself, saying he didn’t want to leave. I was glad that my family had seen him do this, as it wasn’t just me he was doing it in front of for a change, so I had that bit of extra support. This went on for around 45mins and when he eventually calmed down he blurted out that he was worried he wouldn’t see his family again due to the Coronavirus. I think we forget that ‘little ears’ listen to more than we know and probably only understand part of what’s going on which makes it even more confusing for that generation. It’s hard for us, let alone them to understand why life has changed so dramatically in such a short space of time. The routine of school will definitely be most welcomed in our household! Even though I have thoroughly enjoyed all the many positive things in which lockdown has brought us as a family, Kai definitely needs the stability of school and also the social aspect too, which he has really missed.
Now in the week which Taylor will be getting his GCSE results I reflect on everything we have been through as a family. Although times are strange, I think lockdown and furlough has been good to us. It’s given me the opportunity to start my own business, which is currently thriving in a post lockdown landscape. Without the security of furlough, I would not be writing this blog now for my own website. So I am blessed and have a lot to be thankful for, although it didn’t necessarily feel like that at the time. In the beginning it was an emotional rollercoaster for fear of being unable to pay bills with both of us on a reduced wage. Like so many people, my position at work was made redundant, which is unfortunate that the business has needed to make cut backs in order to try and survive, but at least now I can focus on the future and growing my new business.
I understand that some of you reading this may not have had such a positive experience, we all have our own stories to tell, but let me reiterate that everything happens for a reason and good will come to you eventually!
Whether your story is good or bad I would love to hear yours! Please email me your stories enquiries@twobirdsresources.com
Remember we’re all in this together!
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