There have been days in the last year when we very much felt as though we were reinventing the wheel. It has been such a difficult time attempting to balance so many unknowns, fears, worries, and anxieties. Everything often felt like it was spinning out of control.
But look at us now, sporting Christmas jumpers and matching masks like it was the most natural thing in the world. Here's a look back at our year of parenting through a pandemic.
This year took a path none of us could have predicted. It threw challenges our way, and potholes appeared that we very quickly rolled into. Not only because we had to, but because we could. We took those challenges and won in our own specific way. Our way may not have been the same as Laura down the road. But to each their own in a pandemic.
No one would have guessed we’d have ended up scouring the internet for school activities, jumping in our living rooms for a bit of PE, or sitting our kids in front of the laptop for a Zoom session with Ms Reilly. We reinvented how our kids learn and many of us went back to basics.
We schooled our children the best way we could. We brought them back to nature, played board games, disconnected, and reconnected. We explored as a family with adventures on our doorstep. And if you think you didn’t do that, remember the day you said goodbye to home-schooling in mid-May because you all had enough and headed to the beach? There was plenty of learning for our kids in the sand that day.
Sure, we took a back seat because some days the stress, anxiety, worry, fear and what felt like an incredible trudge through quicksand became all too much. We paused, accepted the year for what it was (which is invariably a sh*tshow!) and we got back up and reinvented ourselves (possibly after a little cry if you’re like me).
We allowed ourselves to feel the weight of the world, but gave ourselves time to process it. We slowed down, we looked after our own needs by walking, hiking, running, cycling, and breathing. We let our children see the human side of parenting. And we broke all the rules.
We managed better than we ever thought we could. And despite some of those days being the hardest we’ve ever faced, we made our way through this year; one of the hardest years of parenting. And for that, we deserve a massive pat on the back!