Is it just me, or does this Lockdown feel 100 times harder?
All across the UK families are having to share the same four walls yet again, however this time it’s different. It’s not like the first time where we all scrambled to use our initiatives to ‘make things work’ which was an exciting challenge!
This time we’ve been there, done that and gotten the t-shirt!
Hundreds of people have lost their jobs, hundreds of businesses have closed and thousands of families have lost loved ones.
Those of us left are fighting to hold onto life as we once knew it...
So, it’s ok if we’re working from home now, at least we still have our job!
It’s ok to not have the school drop off to do, they can be in their pjs and still learn!
It’s ok if we still don’t see granny and grandad after nearly a year, at least we can zoom knowing that we’re doing all we can to protect them!
Us adults have A LOT on our shoulders, but it's ok!
It’ll all be ok when the schools go back!
It'll all be ok when summer comes and the vaccines start working!
It'll all be ok when the pandemic ends!
It’ll all be ok when....
Sometimes, it’s ok to not be ok!
It’s ok to want to cry because we’re grieving, whether it’s for a lost family member, a lost job or even for the loss of the everyday life we knew before!
It’s ok to feel like we just want to hide under the duvet because we don’t want to deal with the coming day, but we irritably drag ourselves out anyway!
It’s ok to feel lonely because we’re fed up of seeing the same four walls (....again!) and not being able to see other people, even when looking out of our windows and seeing what was once a bustling environment, turn into a ghost town!
(Just saying, there is a reason that prisons used solitary confinement as a punishment!)
[picture - bloomspeople]
Yes we are all in the same storm with different sized boats. However, please remember that our emotions are just that... OUR emotions and they are absolutely valid to us, no matter what our boat size is.
You are STILL allowed to feel how you feel!
Your emotions are valid.
Just like our children’s emotions are valid to them.
Our children are currently watching us intently. They are learning from us on how to cope in stressful, frustrating and (dare I say it) "unprecidented" times. They need us to step up and role model emotional management.
Our children don't have a boat yet.
They are wrapped up in our boats, holding on tight and hoping that we know what we're doing enough so that the boat doesn't capsise!
Our children need to feel safe and secure to grow into resilient, confident individuals.
So how can we ensure that our emense stress, frustration and loneliness doesn't affect them too negatively in the long term?
By sharing our emotions with them.
By being honest and vulnerable with them.
By being brave enough to show them that we're struggling emotionally.
By being strong enough to role model how to healthily cope with those big emotions.
and most importantly....
By being their anchor and showing them that if you all work together and support each other, your boat can withstand even the most frightening of storms!
To quote Annie, "The sun will come out tomorrow".... well, at some point it will as this pandemic will not last forever.
So let's huddle together and weather the storms and keep an eye out for the rainbows!