Being gentle on ourselves
This week saw the first day of home schooling for thousands of New Zealand families. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I took solace in the fact there was no pressure to do everything within a tight schedule or format. Rather, activities were presented for each of my two sons, aged 8 and 10 years, that could be plugged away at during the course of the day.
As a mum, I know parents and supporting family members take a lot on, trying to do the very best for their family, while giving all they can to other commitments of work, the household, their community – and that’s under normal circumstances.
Taking care of one self usually gets put at the bottom of your priorities and a pandemic doesn’t make it any easier. I was falling asleep after eating dinner last night; that was my body telling me I needed to slow down, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally – because we are in unchartered territory, we can’t expect to be performing or feeling like we normally would.
My experience that may be similar to others, has been like a rollercoaster of feeling top of my game with getting wholesome cooked meals on the table within a routine on some days, while other days has been a struggle to get out of bed to face getting pulled in different directions.
What’s getting me through it? Being gentle of ourselves. Not putting high expectations on ourselves to perform ‘as normal’ every day. Accepting the mess and chaos of my home while trying to focus on work. Enjoying and making the most of every day, being spontaneous when the mood takes us there, and not wishing the days of lockdown away – because this is a time where we have the chance to reset, fall in love with forgotten hobbies again and hopefully take the new founded perspective of life to a post Covid-19 world. And who knows, when challenges face and us and our families again, our resilience will be even stronger.
Here’s some ideas that have lightened up my days for myself and with the kids and my friends from afar, creating lockdown memories – with the help of online inspiration, creativity does peak some days – I’d love to hear your ideas:
Having dinner as a picnic on the kitchen floor now that it’s chilly and dark at that time
Playing spotlight in a dark house after dinner
Using food colouring in the bath and our hair
Playing online games and quizzes with friends from around the country
Pulling out old photo albums
Photo challenge treasure hunt
Going through cupboards and finding forgotten treasures
Planting seeds
Dusting off old toys like my roller skates
Listening to your favourite music when you were a kid
Online workouts with other mums