Steph is a Laois mammy of 3 small kids. She has started a blog to document her life as a mammy muddling through parenthood and searching for her identity in a world wider than her own four walls.
As the pandemic continues she has started a diary to describe daily life as a ‘stuck-at-home mom’.
Sunday
It’s officially the end of Easter holidays. Officially the kids are back to school tomorrow, and I for one am dreading it! It’s been so relaxed not feeling guilty about the lack of academic work we’ve been doing, not that the 5 year old is expected to be writing essays or anything, but I’ve seriously been doing nothing with her!
There was a long list of work sent home when this all started and I’m not even half way through it! And now the school are using this ‘see-saw’ class app! God help me, the teacher actually expects some kind of interaction!
The kids actually record themselves doing the work and send it on, God only knows what she’s going to hear going on in the background! I may put up a sign to remind us to keep swearing at a bare minimum during school time! We don’t want to give a bad impression, i.e the real one!
Monday
Home school has begun – TV off by 9, kids all dressed for school and sitting at the activity table ready for work! But I wasn’t – at all! I completely underestimated the 3 yr old’s capacity to distract EVERYONE and totally overestimated my ability to keep the 5 yr old writing while the 1 yr old was climbing either me or the most dangerous furniture!
After about an hour of pulling teeth I declared lunch time and told them they had to play outside if they wanted their snacks! I had better be more prepared tomorrow!
Tuesday
Tonight we were held hostage by the 3 yr old, and it’s all our own fault!! The Easter bunny recently took her bottles of milk – so we’ve been letting her fall asleep on her terms, you know, because it’s easier.
The lovely routine of stories in bed has been abandoned and she nods off in front of the telly. Not ideal I know, or recommended, but it’s the reality for a while!
We are paying highly for this tonight though. It is 10 o clock and she’s sitting on the couch with a look of pure defiance and stubbornness!! I have fekin’ prime time on the telly and she’s still fighting sleep like Tyson fury!! And this one is normally my good sleeper!! What the f am I going to do now??
All I want is to sit and drink tea and eat my dark choc rice cakes (I know – really not a luxury treat but after @fitwithbrid I swear by them!!) This stand-off is not going to end well for anyone!!
Wednesday
I have been sticking with turning off the TV at 9 (ish) and really feeling the benefits!!
We actually did some school work this morning – a great achievement in my eyes, and the kids were outside planting strawberries with daddy by 11.30..suncreamed and all!!
We jumped on the trampoline, played in the sand, had a picnic lunch (more sausages) and sent the girls on an adventure to find daisies!! It was so fun teaching them how to make daisy chains.
The 1 yr old continues to eat anything he can pick up – today’s menu consisted of sand, muck, wood chippings, more sand, daisies, the wire on the fence, sausages and more sand. His social skills are improving immensely too as he keeps trying to share his ‘tea’ (a cup of sand) with me – by shoving it into my mouth when I least expect it!! Lucky me!
In all seriousness though, its lovely watching him grow. He’s at that stage where he’s trying out loads of words and new ways to move!! He’s dancing and twirling in the trampoline, sprinting down the drive and still climbing on literally everything!! My heart is in my mouth with the wobbling and ‘near misses’.
He’s going to think his name is ‘Jesus!’, and that it should only be said in a high-pitched state of panic!
Apparently by 6.30 we were all fed up of each other. The kids had dinner on the couch and himself ate dinner watching his phone!! I let it all happen because I couldn’t face any fighting after a relatively lovely day!! So much for family meals!! Anyway, it’s not like anyone actually eats the dinner!!
Thursday
Please tell me it’s not just my kids that suffer from the mid-afternoon meltdowns!! Not that they only have meltdowns at this time of the day – but there is a consistency about the hour between 2 and 3.
No matter how well prepared I think I am – they’re well fed, they’re well bribed, they’re well hydrated – nothing seems to tame the beastly behaviour that comes at the time.
Today was worse because I hadn’t kept myself well fed or well hydrated – and I was trying to get out the door to post some letters and pick up some essentials.
I stupidly offered them chocolate to keep them happy. Unfortunately they didn’t have the same chocolate left in their goody bags, thanks to the 5yr olds capacity to chomp through Easter eggs like they’re going out of fashion!
This did not go down well! The 3 yr old was not in a position to make any kind of choice between chocolate types – she wanted all of it. The 5 yr old wanted her own chocolate and everyone else’s.
I wanted them to realise that they were getting a treat and they should be appreciative instead of screaming ‘IT’S NOT FAIR! SHE HAS A BIGGER ONE AND I ONLY HAVE TWO!’ Using my SUPER calm voice I explained this to them, using a jolly anecdote from my youth! It began with ‘When I was your age…..’ I have become my mother! That is all!
Friday
So, today is our wedding anniversary. We’re 6 years of wedded ‘bliss’ in and still holding it together. We’re still holding eachother.
Like everyone, we have our ups and downs, we have our good days and bad days. There are days I wonder how in the name of God I ended up married to him – and I’m sure there are days that he feels the exact same!
There are days we’re so in sync and together that I know we were ‘meant to be!’
No matter what kind of a day it is, we work at our marriage as best we can, because even on the great days marriage needs work. It’s something you can’t take for granted, and the person you marry is someone you can’t take for granted.
He’s the father of my crazy, beautiful, amazing kids and I love him for that, and for everything else.
So tonight, in lockdown, we will celebrate our love not with a night out in a fancy restaurant, but in the home we’ve built, with a big steak dinner followed by home-made lava cakes (yes they were amazing), a glass of Graham Norton prosecco bought in the local Super Valu and a Zoom call with our families.
(Or else I’ll be asleep on the couch by 9 o’clock because just the sniff of prosecco has floored me!)
See what other ‘fun’ things the kids are up to on my webpage and Facebook page.
SEE ALSO – Diary of a Stuck at Home Mum: An Easter week of sun-cream, chocolate and Covid haircuts
