looking a bit off today
The first born is sad. He went to bed and, just when we thought they must be asleep (based on the quietness level and lack of shouting) he let out a little whimper of ‘Dad!”. Next thing he’s joining us downstairs well after bed time and explaining that he ‘just has a sad feeling inside’. It’s heartbreaking when your child says stuff like this. Although this also resulted in him eating a Fredo when the late night shopping delivery arrived so I’m thinking he might feel sad a lot more from now on.
This isolation thing is getting him down and I know he’s not the only one. He’s fed up of doing school work at home with me and it’s not exactly the highlight of my day either. The girl is so desperate to be home schooled she walks around the house with a backpack on and calls me ‘Sir’, not quite understanding the difference between the ‘Miss’ and ‘Sir’ thing just yet. Then there is the little one’s separation anxiety issues which have worsened since he’s attached to me All. The. Time.
Children are just not used to this way of living, hell we’re not used to it. They are not seeing their friends at school, they aren’t visiting their grandparents or enjoying big family Sunday meals. The sort of meals where they get to leave anything green on the plate and eat five different deserts because Grandma is in charge. The sorts of family means where they can go absolutely mental around the house with all their cousins while Grandma sits sipping her glass of white wine safe in the knowledge that her sugar filled grandchildren will all be going home soon. They don’t get to go for walks, to the beach to collect sea glass, for ice cream or pizza, for a day out at the train museum and there are no birthday parties. They miss it all and it’s hard for them to understand that it’s going to be like this for a long time yet.
Our kids are not used to being kept away from their friends and family for such a long period of time. Of course they have school holidays and the big six weeks off but they still go out, have fun and see people. They get a break from the same four walls at home and more importantly, from me. I now spend each evening explaining to my husband my reasoning behind my firm belief that the kids now hate me. The fact that Dad is dishing out Fredos at 9 pm doesn’t sway their love in my favor.
As a parent it’s difficult because we are explaining all of this crazy stuff to our kids about pandemics, social distancing and lockdowns. We are essentially relying on them to understand, just as an adult would (and lets be honest even us adults are struggling a bit), the reasons why we have to stay home, why we can’t go out, why we can’t celebrate birthdays like we planned. The first born, he does good but he misses his friends, he misses his grandparent’s and his cousins and he’s sick of his sister following him around and his brother breaking his Lego train.
Therefore when he asked if he could get a dog I didn’t say no straight away. As any child (and husband) would, they all took this to mean yes. Obviously.
