Day 4356 of lockdown – a diary of a co-parent

Oh, there goes the ceiling again.   Wonder how many light bulbs can fall out.. No, it’s just William doing some PE in his bedroom; does Mr David really need them to do 9000 star jumps?  When I ask…              
‘Oh that lesson actually finished half an hour ago.’ He is on his break and he decided to carry on... I return to my screen. Two lightbulbs down... small price for exercise I reckon...(looking at my watch how have I only done 1800 steps again?)

Meanwhile we have lunch.  Lunch – ah the meal I never have to think about normally; suddenly my lack of cooking expertise is shown up on a regular daily basis.  I plan.  I think ahead and am so unbelievably proud of myself as I produce a lasagne that will last for two lunches… until William takes a bite and says, “Ah mum Mr Abdel’s lasagne is so much better than this, somehow it just tastes so much more like a lasagne.”  Back to fish fingers and chips it is -  with cucumbers though – it’s all about balance, right?

We have a football tournament going – it's indoor and each game lasts five minutes – these are William’s minutes so games vary from 5 – 10 minutes it would appear.  This is actually quite a lot of fun (played in the kitchen with a little stress ball that I bought for times that I was stressed..) Until I realise that this is not just a one-off tournament.  We are currently on our third knock out tournament (each consists of at least 18 matches) and so far Chelsea has won both the Champions League and the FA Cup.  This week we are in Europa league for those that care (trust me when I say Chelsea will win all of them) I am just proud that I have won (at time of writing) two whole games. Both on penalties I hasten to add.

“Right William today I have quite a few meetings – this one I don’t know them – and they could be a new client so unless it's an actual emergency please don’t come in.”

 “Ok Mum.”

Cue five minutes into meeting:

“Mum”

“You ok William?”

“Yes”

To new client – “Sorry just got to check…” 

“Go ahead” they kindly say as they all get it..

Go to door.

“Yes William what is it?”

“Do you know where the football is?”

“Is this an emergency?”

“Yes..”

“No I don’t know and I am on a call – I guess the hall.”

He walks away.  “Oh yes there it is.”

Back to call.

And so we continue. Each day a new juggling act of all things work and school. When I hear him laughing with all his friends, or when he comes down and actually tells me what he has done and how he has liked it – it's those moments that I treasure.  I pause as I write this and take a moment to be grateful; yes for the school and the teachers and all the hard work they are doing but I am in a weird way grateful for this time that I have had with my boy. There have been many lows, many stresses and I have had to grieve because of COVID. Yet there are these pockets of joy in every day – I feel like I know my boy more than I did as I know more what is going on in his world.  I feel like I have some deeper understanding on why teachers all should be paid far more than they are and yes I will even up my lasagne game.. and so we continue one day at a time, all waiting until our kids can be out, full of joy, in the parks playing together and we are all in the pub drinking. I mean laughing. Well with a drink. That time will come and I for one can’t wait.  Until then.  We’ve got this. 

Em Stroud