Can you guess the feeling in our house?
I’m bored, like I can’t remember being bored for a very long time. The kind of boredom that turns you into a child. Wandering around the house, lolling on furniture, mithering my husband upstairs who’s actually working. Messaging friends to say how bored I am. And it’s only week 2. Week bloody 2 of what is likely to be a long haul of boredom based fun.
I have zero excuse to be bored. There are a myriad things I could do around the house AND the kids are off so, technically, I should now be filling the role of teacher as well as parent. But crikey, when the prospect of staying at home together is panning out like one of those endless straight desert roads you see in an American road trip movie, focus is not my forte.
Equally I feel incredibly lucky that I’m not one of the heroes sat on the front line defending this epic trip gifted by Mother Nature. A kind of weird Noah’s Ark moment for the 21st Century, Malthusian economics playing out like no-one in my generation ever thought could happen.
I’m also in the very lucky position that I don’t have to try and juggle the kids whilst home working. I’ve been furloughed from work (a term I didn’t know existed until last week) and, unlike a lot of my friends I’m not having to manage endless video calls amongst announcements that a piece of Lego has been lost, the tablet’s stopped working or one of the smalls needs a poo. Feel free to insert your interruption of choice here…………….
And yet, I’m still bored.
Perhaps this is phase two of lockdown syndrome?
Last week I was mostly annoyed that there were other people in my house. During a normal week, when I’m here and not teaching, I have the house to myself. No-one’s watching me, asking for snacks, expecting me to entertain them, stealing the laptop.
There was anxiety all round last week too. All of us were getting used to the new normal. There were tears from everyone. I think the kids were a bit scared as well as confused. What the F is going on? Why am I not at school? Why the hell is Mummy trying to teach us? How long is this going to go on for? Why is one teacher setting a load of work but the other one not? Who the hell is Joe Wicks?
Alright those questions were mostly mine but the kids are definitely confused.
I think this week will be termed boredom week #1. So far to stave off the boredom I’ve painted a hand gold, eaten my body weight in biscuits, done some papier mache and over-engineered a parachute designed to hold an egg (don’t ask). I have not done any cleaning, developed the website I’ve been meaning to do for months or the rest of the ever growing list of stuff I need to get round to doing. Frankly I can’t be arsed!
I’m not the best at self-motivation anyway but this is a whole other level. It’s a very weird state of affairs!
Perhaps tomorrow I will put my head in a bucket of cold water. It seems to be the in thing for the locked down swimmer!
But to sum all that boredom up, at least I’m safe. I can stay at home quite comfortably, many can’t. I’m really bloody grateful for that! Must stop complaining………………still bored though 😉
Open Water Wheway 