Homeschooling (and why Port’s not just for Christmas)

The photo here is mediocre at best as I’m frankly too tired (and tipsy) to take any kind of Pinterest-worthy flatlay. I’ll replace it later! The downing and not sipping (sorry, Mum)  of Port has marked the end of an exhausting day juggling homeschooling my two kids aged 8 and 10 with a side dish of tech issues, work and all the shizz that comes with having kids at home (cooking, a hundred snacks a day and cleaning with a well deserved McDonald’s for dinner tonight thankfully. I feel done in.

This doesn’t meant to be a wallowing ‘woe is me’ blog post by the way as so many people out there have it far harder than I do (the keyworkers, for a start) and teachers have been absolute heroes turning around remote learning and live lessons with the tiniest of notice but in just a short 24 hours since writing my positive blog post on the (unofficial) start of homeschool, I’ve spiralled into an emotional mess who threatened to run away a mere three times today. Going on Twitter, I’m not alone. We’re collectively floundering, exhausted from yet another (neccessary) lockdown and the pressures that come with it.

Life feels a little bleak right so I’m throwing myself back into Episode 1, Series 1 of Schitt’s Creek because that’s the world I’d like to live in right now and I’m about to nosedive into a chocolate mousse.

We’ll get through this, won’t we? We have to. As Michael Rosen wrote when facing adversity, ‘We can’t go over it. We you can’t go under it, we have to go through it’.

This lockdown though, I’ve decided to lower my expectations and go gently on myself. To throw snacks at the kids, forget how messy the lounge looks and hide in the loo when the going gets tough. The kids will be alright. And, hopefully we will too. One glass of Port at a time.