So so SO fed up and bored by home schooling and domesticity!!!

[pjsgalore]

I feel terrible saying this....obviously big love for my two DC, BUT...I'm sooooo sick of having them at home 24/7. Anyone else feeling completely over it?? I quite liked the break from the school run and the general rat race in the beginning, but now I feel utterly trapped by it - and ill at the thought the kids may not even go back in September!!! Pleaes tell me I'm not alone.

I try to count my blessings...(I actually have started saying them out loud in the morning like a mantra!! I have two healthy, happy children, I am grateful we have plentiful food, a nice house, we're not sick, we're okay for money etc etc etc. And I know there are so many people out there in an awful and scary situation...so I feel spoilt and selfish. BUTTTT.

I despise the home schooling thing - I find it a horrible mixture of tedious and stressful), I hate having zero time to myself EVER and the constant noise of my two DC (9 and 6) and the endless making of and cleaning up after food, and the always clean dishwasher.

I'm a freelance writer and am so lucky I've been able to not HAVE to work during this period - but I miss doing something with my brain so much. But if I try to take something on I then get super snappy with the children and feel guilty and stressed. So although I'm bored of the drudgery - I find the WFH thing impossible too!!! And I'm also in the middle of trying to write a book - but my creativity has gone awol and I have NO TIME. As my bottom heads for the chair it's like a homing signal for the children - MUM can we have a snack! Mum how do I do this sum, MUM MUM MUM MUM. ARRGHHHHHHH.

Please please someone moan with me!!!

Yes, that does sound like depression...it's how I've been feeling too, exhausted and overwhelmed, with deadlines at work that I'm struggling to meet alongside caring for a toddler (they are being flexible thankfully - for now). DH tries to help carry the load (he does most of the cooking) but so often needs to be told what to do, it's incredibly frustrating sometimes. Let's be honest, this situation is absolute shite, so it's no wonder we're feeling crap. My GP recommended tablets for it (via the phone!). Could be worth asking - I'm confident it won't be forever and tablets can help with low mood and lack of energy. Vitamin D also helps - a bit - so try to get some fresh air every day if you can manage it. Solidarity.

yep, hate it. hate the juggling WFH and my nearly 3yo is getting no attention because I'm either working or teaching my 6yo.

dd1 is back at school 1 day a week and dd2 at childminder 3 days so I at least I can do school without dd2 getting ignored.

I enjoyed more time together to start with, rolled up my sleeves to be 'teacher' and my work temporarily had less on. Am absolutely craving quiet now. I have the kids rattling on at me constantly from morning until mid-evening. They don't even listen to my responses and requests. Oh to be temporarily alone!

I totally agree with pp saying how it feels a bit like the baby dark days. Feeling a bit trapped and everything being the same, no variety or freedom. I feel like I’ve not much to look forward to and starting to dread homeschooling all day long

Agreed. I don't think I've felt this much lile I'm on a hamster wheel since the year I had a toddler and a baby. Though then I did actually go out pretty much every day!

Agree with PPs about being tired as well. All I want to do all day is flop on the sofa and read (not an option of course).

I totally get the feeling tired thing. I'm getting more of a lie in (well, 7am anyway compared to pre virus start of 6am to do nursery run and commute)...but I'm SO tired. I have spoken to a fair few mum friends who are feeling the same. I'm also eating junk to try and just keep myself going during the day which I know won't be helping.

2 and 4 year old here so not even having to home school. But me and DH are both working. It isn't too bad I guess as we are able to split the day 50:50. But what I wouldn't give for some child free time. It's relentless.

for you all. If there was a medal icon I'd have included that.

@Piccalino3

I should add, I have absolutely no idea how parents who are both working and have young kids cope - my hats off to you, that would break me on top of everything else!

Yes.

I am very lucky.

Two things are getting to me a bit - one is never having any real time to myself - in terms of having to explain what I am doing when I leave the house eg going for run expect to be about 30 mins or whatever. Only because DH wants to know when to send a search party out not because he's controlling, but I am used to WFH ON MY OWN and not having to explain myself if I go out during the day. But it's not that big a deal really.

The other thing is that DH is very stressed with work. Partly because of IT issues (some are unfortuante due to new deployments of software, very bad timing, but some are things that just wouldn't bother me, eg a pop-up, I just press the x it really gets to him) and partly because I hear every groan and moan. You've heard of helicopter parents, I want to be a helicopter wife and phone his boss and tell her to sort out the issues he has because they are affecting me too! He sighs constantly and it is so wearing. I am his not very friendly IT helpdesk and my son is mine :) We can close the door between us but it's got a glass panel so you can still hear stuff.

I also worry that my ds won't return to his sport.

I’ve literally stopped talking to everyone now as a result of feeling so trapped with my kids until September. I hardly communicate with family, I’ve stopped communicating with friends, the only people I talk to is DP and the children. It’s the only way I can cope.

It feels exactly like the baby and toddler days. I have thought that since the beginning.

puffin, I am so worried my DDs won’t go back to their sports too.

I hate it. I didn't sign up for this. I've only got one kid but that means he hasn't got anyone to play with.

Who remembers the heady days of week one? Hilarious memes. WhatsApp kicking off. Covid jokes. Discovering zoom.

I'm finished now. I hate zoom. Zoom isn't conversation, its stilted performance. The memes aren't funny. Wfh is utterly shit. Homeschooling is an epic fail in this house.

Every day the same, every week the same. DP is pretty nice but I'm utterly sick of him. God help us all.

Yes, me too OP. I feel like I’m being held hostage. I feel like my DC are suffering from multiple angles - confusion and fear over coronavirus, lack of normal routine and social interaction with kids their own age, me being tired fed up and angry, their dad being at home but busy working therefore they need to leave him alone in another room... it goes on.

Today I really felt a sickness in my stomach about this whole situation which I last felt in my early 20s when I was hit hard by depression that required medication and counselling to pull me out of. I don’t want to go down that road again.

They need to let us get back out there.

I am so glad I’m not alone! I kept thinking I must be a terrible mother not to be enjoying this. The thing I hate the most is not being able to leave the house during the day. It’s really doing my head in. If I try and even go for a quick walk everything seems to kick off and DH gets so annoyed as his work can’t be interrupted. I feel like I’ve been shoved in to this awful 1950s housewife role of just existing to look after and serve others.

I have found my people. I have more or less given up home-schooling, can't bear the thought of another walk around the block and have achieved almost nothing in weeks. I crave time to myself!

Oh I am all walked out.

The mere thought of another walk brings genuine tears to my eyes but I also know the children need fresh air and I need to keep them busy and moving and if I don’t do it no one will. So off on another walk we go.

It’s soul destroying. I think a lot of people might see this as melodramatic but restriction and repetition are two well established forms of torture.

Just wanted to add and say I’m feeling EXACTLY the same!!! 2 kids 11 & 8 who have zero enthusiasm for anything now. Like others we started off fairly well, we had a schedule , it was going to be great etc. But we have all slowly lost motivation for anything and the days are literally Groundhog Day.......Relentless nagging required to get dressed eat breakfast Sit down don’t do that please be kind to your sister etc etc.

I’m furloughed so feel like it’s all on me. Had high hopes for studying and decorating and can’t do anything as brain feels like mush and feel overwhelmed with the thought of actually doing anything?! Husband is lovely but locked away upstairs doing very Important work in our bedroom which we have to vacate from 0730 As he’s on calls ALL day so ensuring we have literally everything we might need for the day....(he does appear sporadically to rescue a maths drama or to enquire as to whether the dog is getting enough mental stimulation wtaf.) I have nowhere to go in house either and nowhere to escape constant questions or moans and our lovely dog follows me literally everywhere too.

Like others, so so so bored of tidying the same piles of paper and general other shit multiple times a day and hoovering and washing and bloody dishwasher again and again and Endless snacks and fucking bickering and aaargh. Same as others have found myself overwhelmingly exhausted at times even though I’m not actually doing anything and can only think it’s all the low level stress and anxiety?!

11 year old supposed to be back at school 2 days a week next couple of weeks and feeling conflicted with worrying it’s safe and thank fuck!!

Feels like I’m slowly going mad it’s good to know that many of us are feeling the same.....

My 6yo went back to school this week, and honestly it feels as if I have emerged from a swamp. Getting some silence and time on my own, being able to concentrate on my work, not having to constantly make meals. I could feel myself slipping down into the abyss before, but now I am just about coping. I am fantasising about eating in restaurants and would happily never cook again. The house is a mess, I don’t think I will ever want to go on a walk again. Another school mum and I ended up laughing almost hysterically earlier today when the weekend came up in conversation. Because it just means Yet Another Walk.

I am trying to keep super low expectations for the summer, which will probably end up being me trying to work full time at home with a bored and lonely child for two months.

Can I appeal to you all, even if you cant go away, make your other halves take holiday in the summer holidays. I have demanded mine take some time off or I swear I won't make it through. I know if I don't insist he won't think to because "well we can't go anywhere". He can take a week off and do all the fucking walks. I will hide in my room.

We are splitting stuff that isn't the kids really well. He's very conscious that I have them all day so is doing a lot of housework and cooking. But the summer holidays fill me with dread.

SCREAMS

This thread is hilarious.

And this is exactly why I'm sitting downstairs, by myself, past midnight, TV off, in absolute silence.

I'm very lucky, the DC are well behaved and we have everything we need, but the constant low level background noise drives me insane!!!!!

Yep, super fed up, WFH, widowed parent, two primary aged kids, one with additional needs. I am TIRED and LONELY and haven’t had any time sans kids/work before 9pm since this started. My DH was super useful when alive, now I have to do sodding everything myself and grieve for him.

I'm struggling too, can cope when the weather is better as it feels a bit easier mentally but last couple of days have just been so flat. I can't do another 10 weeks of playing with my 4 year old, I wish she could go to the park at least to break up the monotony!

@tunnocksreturns2019 sorry for your loss, it sounds bloody hard

Thanks, it is. 3.5 years but it doesn’t get any easier - in fact lockdown’s taken us backwards in some ways. But kids are mostly happy.

I feel guilty about feeling bad really, as in the great scheme of things our troubles are trivial. But it is starting to get me down a bit now. I think the lack of things to look forward to is part of it. We should have been on holiday in half term but that was obviously cancelled and we have nothing else planned. Even minor things like sports fixtures, music festivals, school events etc normally add some structure to the year and that's all lost. Everything just seems to blur into one. My boys are generally well behaved and old enough to do their schoolwork with minimum supervision but they are getting a bit stir crazy and that's leading to petty squabbles. DH is becoming less tolerant of that by the day. I am getting sick of all the cleaning and cooking - especially cooking lunches - and I miss human contact. I haven't seen my daughter since Christmas which is the worst thing.

I think I've missed something ...

Where have you all seen that schools will not be going back in September?