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’.
Monday
Today I killed it in lockdown. I was living my best lockdown life!!
I got two loads of washing out and dry, sorted the 15 other loads that were lying around in baskets, swept, hoovered and mopped the floors.
I played games outside with the kids, fed them burgers and chips (plus 70 million other snacks throughout the day) limited screen time, had them all in bed by 9 and did my first Facebook live quiz!! I was even in good form nearly all day!!
Seriously, I’m going to award myself a medal. I deserve it!
Bring on tomorrow!!
Tuesday
After the unbelievable success of yesterday I knew today would not compare, but I didn’t think I could crash so far! The house is back to square WarZone!
The laundry baskets have somehow all filled up again! And the kids have been at each-other’s throats all day, which means I have been on full-on negotiator/dictator/Punisher mode all day!!
Bring on Bedtime, whenever we get there!
Wednesday
3 hours and 11 minutes, that’s how much sleep I had last night. 3 hours and 11 F**king minutes.
And now I’m up with a 5-year-old who wants to make me a pretend cake by mashing real bananas through a piping bag filled with an LOL doll, but it’s ok, because she’ll wash the doll.
The 3-year-old is ferociously in support of this culinary magnificence and let me know this by screaming ‘let her do it!’ at the top of her little lungs through her little gritted teeth!
My husband is non-plussed at the whole scenario and has decided to make sandwiches.
It is noon..what splendour awaits me for the rest of the day??
Apple, that’s what awaited me. They chewed up Apple and spat it into bun cases on top of the mashed bananas!!
‘We’re the best bakers ever!’ asserted the 3-year-old as she shoved it in my face.
Thursday
What a day!! The sun was out all day and so were the kids. It was fabulous. They cycled, they played, they paddled in the pool and they played in the sand. The holiday vibe was strong and I was lapping up the UV rays!
The kids went between being too hot, too tired, too wet, too thirsty and too hungry. They laughed, they cried, they fought, they hugged and the day went by in a flash.
We all had ice creams and pizza and chips and we just chilled out! It was just lovely – even when it wasn’t.
Friday
One week on from Late Late Leo and it’s easily the hottest day of lockdown so far!!
It’s like being in Spain, but also – not!! At least in Spain it’d be a real pool, sun-loungers and some serious raiding of the buffet breakfasts!!
Seriously though, I’ve been chatting to some other mammies and the general consensus is the same: thanks be to God the weather has been so good. Imagine all of this had happened in winter and we were all stuck inside!!
We really are lucky to have so little to complain about!
Saturday Morning Reflection
Some mornings I sit watching the kids wreck the place and dream about the future. I dream about sitting in my clean kitchen (future me is clean and super organised), quietly getting through my breakfast and drinking my tea while it’s hot. I think to myself – wow, that will be amazing.
Then I think some more and I realise that when that time does come, I will not be able to appreciate it, because I will miss my kids so much.
Life is funny, people are funny. We are always dreaming about what will come, the next step. We set goals and love to reach them and tick them off. We get some kind of pleasure in reaching milestones.
Today I’m looking forward to a cup of tea in peace some morning, but when that morning comes I will be looking back.
I’ll be looking back at my chaos filled mornings when I couldn’t sit down but I was called upon to wipe a spill or a bum or provide more of something, or simply provide a cuddle.
I will look back with longing (and rose tinted glasses) for those moments that I didn’t treasure at the time.
I will be hoping that my kids remember those moments with love, remember me providing for them, and don’t remember me rolling my eyes at the 50th request for more milk or ‘something’ undefined from the fridge.
But most of all I’ll be sad that I didn’t know what I had until it was gone. I’ll be sad that I didn’t take the time to appreciate where we were in life at that moment. Instead of looking at the next big milestone, I should have been looking closely at what my kids were achieving daily, the new words or skills they were trying out .
Life is for living, and loving. It is for spending time with our families and while we might not love every moment while they’re little and so dependant, we will miss those moments when they’ve passed.
This virus has locked us in our homes with our kids and even though it’s tough and even though we are feeling bewildered and alone and bloody exhausted, this time will soon pass.
And while it’s important to set goals and look to the future, it’s important also to remember that our little ones will grow, and they will leave us, and we will look back instead of looking forward.
So today take time to think about what you want to look back on, what you want to feel when you look back.
And as you create that image of future you, make sure you’re not sad about the wrong thing.
Or you know, maybe we won’t be sad at all!!
Maybe we’ll be so thrilled with our clean houses and hot tea that we’ll be completely fine. Who knows?
Thanks for reading, see what else I’m up to on my blog or Facebook page! Give me an auld follow if you can!
SEE ALSO – Diary of a Stuck at Home Mum: Back to ‘home school’
