to ask how you are all keeping busy in lockdown

[nuttymomma]

I'm so bored.

I'm liking being at home and not having to work and still getting paid. I know I'm lucky but I'm boooooored.

I started lockdown by helping DD with her online school work except its become a bit less work than at the start of lockdown. Like the teachers can no longer be arsed either. So DD is bored too.

DD and I have been baking, doing housework, walking the dog, DD has been practicing her music lessons, facetiming friends.

I'm eating like a pig out of boredom and I'm not really sticking to my slimming world group. My gym has online classes now but its not the same so I haven't really been doing it.

The local university were offering free online courses. I started one. Now I've given up as its not really interesting.

I've lost all motivation and routine.

Help. How do I keep myself motivated, busy, healthy and fit???

I am only leaving the house to exercise. DH is a key worker and therefore is able to get our food shopping so that only one person in our house is going out.

Working from home and looking after a 3yo whilst pregnant 🥵

The things I wish I could do (in case any of these inspire you);
Read a book.
Systematically clear out each room in the house of anything that is not useful, beautiful or sentimental then give them all a deep clean including the carpets.
Sunbathe in garden.
Exercise without 3yo jumping on me.
Do some gardening.
Sleep.
Look out my maternity clothes from the attic as my clothes are feeling tight now.
Binge watch anything good on Netflix.

Could you write a list of small things you want to accomplish each day and make yourself complete them? Bigger projects could be a weekly list perhaps?

I started out by teaching online, as I was finishing up a long-term supply contract, so that occupied me for a while.

Now, I volunteer at a doctors’ surgery in the mornings, and read books and write my own book during the afternoons. Interspersed with a bit of DIY work.

Not sure what you need to keep you motivated, sounds like you jump from one thing to another. Maybe you should try to be out and about more on long walks now that we are allowed out to exercise more frequently? Bring an audio book.

By the way, well done for getting a miniature teacher-bash in on a thread that’s not even about teachers. You win the weekly prize.

You can come and help me if you like. I've never been so busy. Trying to teach 3 dc at home and do housework.

I find I need fixed points in the day when I definitely do something - like I do the Gareth Malone Home Chorus at 5.30, which means I need to have done everything else by then. I also go for a walk before lunch, and do yoga in the hour before the press conference. I’m teaching online, so I work all morning and part of the afternoon on my laptop, then do more in the evening if it’s needed. I have an zoom book group every Monday which gives me incentive to keep reading so as not to be embarrassed...

I am very busy, but in a more fulfilling way. As much as I find distance learning my dd challenging, I do feel a sense of achievement when I look her through her work and see the progress she has made.
I cook lunch (soup, fancy salads etc) and dinner from scratch every day.
There is is the usual laundry, cleaning, childcare to do.
I've signed up a to a free online course to look after my little grey cells.
My time is full and I am content.
I'm not smug btw, I just find this lifestyle suits me better than the usual mindless rushing around that was my normal life. We are all different.

I was certainly not meaning to bash teachers. I was only making an honest observation that DD is not getting as much work from the school as she got before Easter.

Working all hours trying to not lose my business, look after DM and support DD.

What I'd like to do is learn a language (or get better at the one's I speak a bit of), practice piano, catch up on reading, exercise every day, walk more, chat with friends and family, and learn calligraphy.

I’m working and looking after a one year old. I would dearly love the free time you have to read, cook, take baths, write letters to friends, and work on a side project I’ve had for a few years.

In week one I made a list of things I should do during lockdown and if I ever feel bored I refer to it. I'm learning Spanish and feel I'm really making progress, reading more, and writing short stories. Lots of gardening, but not much housework!

I'd bloody love to be bored
Never been so busy

Both working, child, dog, full-on Spanish lockdown. Thankfully it's easing up as of yesterday, but still fucking awful. Child is too traumatised to go outside for a walk. Video calls are getting tedious as we haven't done anything. DS has to write a daily diary for school but we have up after two weeks as it was:
Breakfast
Joe wicks
Read
Lunch
School work
Tablet
Lego
Dinner
Bed.

Day in, day out. Too depressing. I'm WFH and hate it, I much prefer the separation of work/home. Child not back at school until September, that'll make it 6 months (March 12-Srot 12th ). Fucking yay.

I guess I'm feeling lonely which is strange as I always thought I was happy with my own company.

My online exercise classes aren't the same without the usual crowd or even the usual music as its all royalty free music now and I feel more inspired dancing to my favourite tunes. It just feels wierd and lonely exercising on my own to unfamiliar music.

I'm watching lots of netflix but that feels rather lazy. I'm walking the dog but I'm too scared to go far. I'm obviously doing housework.

I was just hopeful for ideas on how to get motivated and not bored, lethargic and depressed. I miss my parents as they plus DD and DH are my social life really.

I'm WFH in a really stressful role, home schooling two kids on my own, and would absolutely love to have time to do ...
Reading
Gardening
Clearing out cupboards
Deep clean of house
Baking
Watching box sets
Learning to play piano
Spend more time doing fun stuff with the kids
Run every day
Write letters to family
Sleeping

Trying to juggle housework, helping with school work, entertaining children, losing a couple of stone, bit of relaxation time, making sure DH is ok (working outside the home, although they are calming down now)...

Working,.just working 😟

Im working from home - its really hard - trying to cover for furloughed staff trying to keep the organisation afloat - feel like I am working 24 hours as the phone never stops all day and I am working late into the evening to catch up paperwork , I havent had a day off at all since lock down - husband is key worker on permanent nights, 3 children need constant attention. I am exhausted I am stressed to the max and I cant stop bleaching everything. I feel a complete failure because the kids are not doing all the work they should and will be behind. i would quite like to sit in the garden with a cup of tea .

@nuttymomma - you sound like you might usually work in a busy, reactive environment and you're struggling to adjust to massive change in pace - hence the flitting and not being able to settle. Have you done any meditation or mindfulness work where you try to settle down and pay attention to what your body and mind are doing? It sounds like you need some kind of "re-set".

Like other PPs, I am working in a busy, demanding job with 2 children at home and I am actually quite grateful for the distractiion/sense of purpose. People say they envy your boredom but it is seldom the fantasy you imagine. Me and DH are very lucky in that we both work part time (and he is also working from home). Best things that work for us on non-workijg days are:
Routine - quite loose but we need some structure so we don't all drift. This includes getting up and dressed in morning (not always achieved bit the day feels more structured if we're not all lounging about in sleepwear)
Decent food - pretty health in the main with some treats
Outside time for everyone - when this doesn't happen you can tell on mood.
Everyone a bit of time to themselves - we have a small house and no garden (a slice of patio type garden at front)so we are quite on top of each other with everyone needing space to work or study so we each escape with tech or outdoors for a bit of the day.

I do a lot of - knitting , reading, keeping in touch with shielding parents, pottering with my pots on the patio etc in my down time as well as Netflix.

Good luck

I'm a single parent key worker in the emergency services with 2 kids. When I'm not working I'm trying to squeeze in home schooling, housework, shopping etc etc . . Would absolutely love the luxury of being able to stay at home all day with my kids and still get paid. The grass is alway greener on the other side I guess

I'm working my way through all the Watch books by Pratchett.

I've been learning Latin on Duolingo.

Watched loads of films.

Done yoga.

Gone for walks.

Baked cakes.

@thatsforsure - I wish I could reassure you that you sound the very opposite of a failure. Your work situation sounds awful. Are you self-employed? If you are employed, I would try to get advice somewhere on how you can negotiate a more reasonable working pattern. I know my children are not getting the input they need from us most days and truth be told school work is bottom of my list of things to do. But I ended up having a chat with one their teachers and she was so reassuring. They really know that for many (most?) children it will just be impossible for parents to provide the learning and support to make up for school.

We’re both furloughed , have no DC to homeschool so we ...
Luckily have a greenhouse , so have tomatoes, peppers , courgettes , beans and salad leaves growing
Also planted cosmos , sweet peas , nigellas and bought some dahlia plug plants
Digging a big patch in the garden to plant veg and a cut flower garden
Go for a walk for an hour or so , depending on age , the DD Can learn how to do hopscotch , skipping rope
Birdwatch ? I thought Springwatch was starting tonight , hope it’s on soon .
Learn to spot the birds , butterflies or wildflowers ?
I spent the whole day cleaning today , don’t want to do that every day but it was very satisfying
Sort the photos , make a photo wall ? Or collage
Jigsaw , we’ve just completed a 1000 piece one
Sunbathe ?

I was made redundant just before lockdown and have been trying to start my own business, but in my downtime I’ve been collecting various different things to do crafts!

I’ve made some rope rainbows for my friend’s children, started learning how to make a few macrame bits, I’ve got a paint by numbers to start on, as well as some bits for embroidery and making pom poms!

It’s nothing groundbreaking and I’m not massively good at any of it, but it’s kept me going

My nana said she was feeling lonely yesterday and found that odd as she is home alone most of the time. She thinks it is because the choice of what to do has been taken away so can’t just decide to go out when she wants anymore.

The things that help me are:
Keep a routine going every day during the week and relax over the weekend.
Have meals at regular times. At the start of lockdown we were quite haphazard with meals and that didn’t work at all.
Dc are teenagers so do school work every morning and we help where needed. They do more in afternoon if necessary.
Do something together in the afternoon for fun like play games, cook etc.
We are also watching an old series that we haven’t seen before and watch an episode every night which is good. Lovely to spend time with dc rather than them glued to their phones in their rooms!

I do find the the dc are bored if they don’t have enough to do so dd will revise for up coming tests as well if teachers have not set enough work.
Could you find something else for your dc to learn if there is not enough school work? Either expanding on what they are doing or learning something completely new that they find fun.
I plan one cleaning/housework activity every day but no more or I get far too bored!
I also do a Pilates class every week through zoom which I am really enjoying.

Working, home schooling my 6 and 4 year olds and looking after my 16 month old. Doesn’t leave time for much else.

I'm working from home in a new and very high pressured job (investment banking). My days are intense and long and the chance to actually do something other than work and sleep would be lovely!! Even my online exercise classes have fallen by the wayside. I'm stressed out and feel like I'm on a very fast hamster wheel killing myself. I hope it gets better but how I envy people with time for hobbies, baking, shopping for food, etc.