In our third blog during lockdown, Moira MacLean, a Research Technician in the School of Ocean and Earth Science, shares her life with her four year old.
Lockdown is the new norm now, but it has been a rollercoaster of a ride so far with some amazing highs and some dark and terrible lows. It’s week 5 now and I think we have come to a fairly good routine that seems to be working for all. It’s taken a lot of trial and error to get here – not to mention the relentless mum guilt.
Both my husband and I are now working from home, so we are trying to tag team the childcare between us and get our respective work done. We are lucky in a way as I work part-time, so instead of working three full days, I now split my time over five days. This has been hugely beneficial to me in many ways. I no longer feel like there is a delay between my weeks and I can process things in bite size chunks. Most importantly I can fit my work around my child.
He has gate crashed a few meetings but it’s been rather fun. At one point he popped up and demanded to play show and tell. I have never seen my colleagues move faster to find something they could hold up to the camera and present. It was hilarious and a much needed rest from the current situation.
The key is household communication, we make a plan every morning at breakfast so that we all know what’s happening and our son has started chairing the morning briefing sessions. The family motto has become “Team work makes the dream work” with regular motivational shouts from the boy of “Just care for each other” when things aren’t working.
It has been a huge adjustment to pack up and set up at home. It has been challenging but it’s also been great fun. When we all sit around the kitchen table doing our ‘work’ – craft activities for the child and laptops for the adults. These are lovely precious family moments which we wouldn’t otherwise have during the week and our weekends are no longer filled with rushing around trying to fill every moment with things.
All in all it’s a slower pace of life but it doesn’t mean it’s less productive. It’s just different to before. Let the guilt go, find joy in simple things and keep trying until you find what works for you. Everyone is different and these are certainly different times.
You can hear about the experiences of more mums during lockdown in this month’s edition of Staff Matters.
Health and Wellbeing provide a range of advice for staff including team resilience, guidance for vulnerable adults, setting up your home workstation and maintaining positive wellbeing whilst working from home.
