Howie P on 07 January 2021
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Q. What does this new lockdown mean for you?
I'm not shocked that we are in lockdown as I think I saw that coming. It does mean that I can't work so financially everything is unknown again, right after Christmas when finances are often a bit sketchy. The biggest impact on my family at the moment though is online learning from school. In the first lockdown we just opted out as it was so stressful and we did learning but in our own way. Two of my kids now feel this can't happen again in case they get behind. I see the pressure that the government is putting on schools and teachers is really just being pushed to the kids. The school timetable really does not translate to online learning. They are both filling their days with following the work set and not being able to complete it within the usual lesson time or the usual school day. They are barely taking breaks and start each day with the work they couldn't finish from the day before. My daughter played me a PowerPoint for English Lit, with a voice over explaining that if she didn't get work in on time they would give negative behaviour points and work would not be marked. This made me so upset and she was upset that this was the way it was all introduced to her on day one. There is no time for anything else, like exercise or just having fun or a chat. On day one when they finished so late and they were so frazzled I realised that waiting until they had finished to go for a walk and get exercise was not going to work. So we have tried walking before they start but then we all have to get up and be ready even earlier to make that happen so I'm not sure if they will let me keep doing that! I think another lockdown is really difficult but as a family we would cope with it, however the pressure from school and the fact that it just takes up the WHOLE day and there is no positive feedback and no feeling of completion and no interaction in actually just really depressing. I am struggling to get anything done in my day too as they need so much support to get through it all and I am making sure that they are having a break and a drink and are eating properly. It's not sustainable, it doesn't translate to being in the home and it will have a massive impact on mood and wellbeing. I am quite mad about it. It seems so contradictory. I spoke to my friend who is a TA in a school and she said that she still feels at risk in her job as actually most classes are still half full. I am not even convinced that the tragedy of a third lockdown will do enough to lower cases if there is still so much mixing happening. On top of this, my daughter who is at Uni in Wales has been told that there is an expectation for her to return for her first face to face session in January! I think as a family, we can take the hit and cope with it but it's so much harder as it's not joined up and it doesn't make sense.
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