Anti Ds We might be locked out of last thread,..but we will never be totally locked dow 👍

[Dowser]

How did that happen?
Taking one for the team 👍

@InsaneInTheViralMembrane 😂😂😂

I do think that at 7 & 9 mine have come off reasonably lightly compared to pre-schoolers and teenagers. Home schooling was a bastard, but at least they're not at critical stages, and they are old enough to understand why the world is not at normal function. They're also not independent like teenagers. Ds2 has missed his friends much more, but he is a more sociable child.

The summer holidays have made it easier as a day or two out a week does feel relatively normal. There would normally be more excitement about a park, but we killed that one in May/ June, and we are missing cheaper things like the swimming pool. I normally only have to pay for me as they are included in the cost of their lessons, but I CBA to see if I can book them in for 6pm.

My mind is on September as a gear change. At least there will be a school routine. I've got outdoor fitness classes back on after a break for Aug. Still a lot of vaugeness, but a gear change nonetheless.

DH will still be loitering WFH.
It's wearing as someone who always needed time to themselves, that I just get the rest of the family's brain dumps because they don't have anyone else to brain dump on. I just internalise it and spill on MN

I was explaining to DS1 that my brain is dealing with about 5 different things in order to drive safely and therefore I can't cope with listening to the voice in the back and and the mental gymnastica as it jumps from topics like the Mariana Trench to WW2 tactics via Pokémon

Yeah my 6 and 5 year olds have been relatively ok to be honest. I mean, homeschooling completely failed but at their ages it didn’t matter too much. Plus they’ve got each other and are genuinely best friends (very close in age) so coped ok.
The presence of the (now) 18 month old made it a whole lot harder though. A couple of weeks ago I was genuinely worried about him, he was so unhappy and seemed to have lost all his language. I’ve now realised it’s because he was getting a bit neglected! With DH working such long hours and me attempting to homeschool and work, he had no meaningful attention at all. I was genuinely distraught at the realisation that his unhappiness and lack of language was essentially my fault. Thankfully as the DD’s were able to go back to school I had a few weeks to really focus on him and the difference was so noticeable. I’m really worried it’s all going to happen again if schools don’t open properly

My 9 year old was fine. My teenager was more complicated. She disappeared into her Xbox as that was where she met her friends. So she did have regular contact with her friends, but she also became very withdrawn and a lot less verbose.
And they both became very flabby and lost a lot of stamina. Not fat, just.....non-energetic. A more monochrome version of who they really are.

Since lockdown has eased, they have bounced back to their original selves, though they still tire easily. If schools don't return to a modicum of normality in September, I cannot begin to fathom how we will cope.
Forget about Giant Doctor..... Giant Me will sit over the town, crying fat tears over the dementors

MN is being a dementor tonight it's time for life insurance ad keeps coming up on my phone. Thanks for that. Will it be funeral plans next I wonder

@InsaneInTheViralMembrane
Eloquent as always 😂😂😂

Dd2 was such a mess after about 5 weeks of lockdown I had been around every sport organisation I could find as I was so concerned. Dd2 is normally the most resilient and sunshiney kid you would ever find and she was just sobbing constantly, wouldn’t play, just wanted to lie there and couldn’t sleep for the “too much sad inside her head”. She had lost so much fluency and confidence in her speech (she has verbal dyspraxia and had made incredible progress with a condition that can be a real hard one to treat) and it was heartbreaking to see. Stress induced eczema, anxiety related headaches so bad she was losing her vision temporarily- and she turned 7 just at the start of lockdown.

I begged begged and begged school to take her back as she just was NOT coping but it took weeks of that, and her class teacher hearing the deterioration in her speech for herself - for them to take me seriously and accept her back in - and the head has not forgiven me for me getting a child she felt was not entitled to be there (for mum is just a lowly healthcare student) back into provision. Oh yeah - she was terrified of the outside as well at one b point - GP blamed me as a neurotic mother of course

The way I’m struggling now I think is just total burnout from having to fight so hard to look after her - and dd1 who was just so angry at it all that she was kicking the crap out of me- and now I’m paying the cost of keeping it together for the kids!

Oh god I've cracked and called someone a sanctimonious twat on the Christmas panto thread. Whoops.

I remember going to see panto as a kid in the late 70s Mother Goose and Jack and the Beanstalk , Terry Scott was in one of them

I managed to get myself deleted off a school thread...I really feel for you Domina, for some kids this has been really disastrous.

@SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito

Oh god I've cracked and called someone a sanctimonious twat on the Christmas panto thread. Whoops.

She deserved it.

@IfNotNowThen2

I managed to get myself deleted off a school thread...I really feel for you Domina, for some kids this has been really disastrous.

Hopefully we’ve undone the worst of the damage now at least and we’re starting to get the little girl back! It scared me seeing her slip so far so fast though- and this is a kid with really bad dyslexia who managed to learn to ride a bike when she was still only 6 which says something for her usual grit and resilience!

Dyspraxia not dyslexia!

@InsaneInTheViralMembrane

I can only assume she doesn’t want us rolling up to the covid ward as she might need to pause her tik-tok video to do some nursing.

Love it

@InsaneInTheViralMembrane 🤣🤣😭

My three year old grandson has suffered the most I think, his behaviour has been so erratic, bad meltdowns, getting into trouble time and time again for repeated bad behaviour, not sleeping well, veering between naughty and clingy. This last fortnight we have turned a corner. when things started opening up again and he could go out beyond 5 miles, see family, go to play parks etc. his little world is now ok I think in his mind.

I've studiously avoided the Panto discussion because I can just imagine some of the posts (How can you think about enjoying yourself When People Are Dying????...because of course no one ever died in December before This Terrible Virus). I'm continuously reminded of that Fr Ted scene where Mrs Doyle spits out "Maybe I LIKE the misery!" in response to some innocent suggestion or other.

I found out last weekend that the baby my nephew and his partner are having is another little boy , Due in December

Ooh newsnight now.

False positives virus shedding, bits of virus not infectious left over.

I'm continuously reminded of that Fr Ted scene where Mrs Doyle spits out "Maybe I LIKE the misery!"

Exactly this!!

@justasking111

Ooh newsnight now.

Whats going on?

You will have to watch it on i player is finished now. Basically saying false positives are a thing a hangover if you like from someone who was previously infected but is no longer infectious and how to handle it rather than locking down again.

@InsaneInTheViralMembrane

I can only assume she doesn’t want us rolling up to the covid ward as she might need to pause her tik-tok video to do some nursing.

Aha ha ha ha.

Reading everyone's stories about their kids just makes me sad for you and for them. I have none so no struggles with working from home. It's just awful how much they are missing out on and how much you all worry.

My 14yo finally toilet training makes up for all the home schooling we didn't do.(Slow going mind - I fished out our tatty copy of "Liam goes poo in the toilet" and edited it with a sharpie, this evening!) We've also made sandwiches together and I've roped him into helping me change his bed - we do that a lot. He's marginally better at the buttons on his duvet cover than my poor arthritic thumbs. Failed at convincing him to let me cut his hair, mind, so he looks distinctly shaggy.

That's lovely news, Helena