Single-Parenting: A Covid Story

So the Lady has caught Covid and I’m left alone to look after the Master and Little Lady. Who would have thought being a single parent wasn’t a lifestyle choice for lazy idle scroungers?

Ok, anyone who thinks that being a single parent* was easy needs to try it for a couple of days and that’ll change their minds. It’s not easy looking after a 3 & 5 year old, still do a job that’s consuming a lot of my time and cook/clean/tidy. It’s relentless!

*(or more accurately – single mother because statistically most single parents are mothers, not that there aren’t single fathers but you know what I mean)

The Lady caught Covid and started exhibiting symptoms on Sunday – but initially we thought that it was just a cold or hangover or tiredness or life in general, she only got tested on Tuesday (lateral flow; which was positive followed by PCR which came in the same day as positive. I tested myself and the kids and we’ve all have negatives – which is good. The Little Lady has had a runny nose for the last 3 months or so and a gunky eye – symptoms of what I hope will be of Nietzschitis, but who knows – these childhood colds and flus come like waves, one after another.

So, I spent the day with the kids on Wednesday at home and still managed to pack in 8 hours work (thanks Peppa Pig and midnight oil). But they were back to school Thursday & Friday.

The Lady is actually an amazing mother and wife and very capable of doing the simple things like organising everything, running the family operations (I do the family office stuff) – doing it all on my own gives me a renewed appreciation of what she does for the family. And it makes me feel very sad about all the times I was away on sales visits in my old, old job. She’s a star my Lady!

COVID Contingency Plans

Last March or so, the Lady and I had a chat about what we’d do if one of us got COVID and the plan was basically that the infected specimen would go into our upstairs living room and convalesce for 2 weeks (now 10 days). Our house is large with not that many rooms – it makes getting home insurance cheap (just renewed for £34 for our Grade 2 listed house – thanks for cashback). So our upstairs living room has a fire, bed, two sofas, piano, double bed and my old desk. She’s living in luxury, it’s the suite life I tell you!

Luckily we have the space but it’s still tough on her – she misses the kids and they miss her. The room is cold and she’s bored – although she’s a voracious reader and can keep herself entertained.

That’s what the infected one has to do; the surviving parent’s plan… we never thought much about that. I still need to get the kids their milk and breakfast (bread with jam and pâté) get the Little Lady ready for nursery (cycle over and back), get the Master ready for school and pack his lunch, drop him off, come back home with a pastry for the prisoner, work all day, pick them up after school, cook dinner, feed them, wash-up (why do 2 people make 10 coffee cups a day!!!), play with them, tidy up their mess, bath, teeth, PJs, books, bed, get back to work, sleep and repeat.

This weekend we’ve got music, ballet, swimming, horse reading, tennis, dry stone walking, a trip to Edinburgh for Xmas at the Botanics, dinner with friends, drive back home and a birthday party squeezed in as well. Plus I’ve still to feed the prisoner and produce a report for work (which I deleted by mistake this week).

Xmas at the Botanics

I can totally understand why parents are more than happy to let their kids do whatever causes them the least inconvenience – you’d have to be a masochist to want it any other way?

Traditional Family Values

I’ve not really written much about this before, but as much as I’d like to think of myself as a liberal I seem to have some what you might call “traditional values” – especially when it comes to family/children. It’s not that fashionable to suggest that there are right and wrong ways to raise kids. However, all the evidence suggests the opposite. Now, I’ve got the shoe on the other foot and I’m a single parent trying to juggle things and I guess that every parent has good intentions – even if they are right or carried through with – I don’t know how long I could do this solo.

We’re privledged to not have money worries – and I can work from home and still earn. Work optional you could say. But I’d nit like to be a single parent with a commute on a job that I can’t lose!

So, I hope that the Lady gets well and recovers. I’ll see if I can be nice to other parents – because sometimes there are things we can do to help people and make their busy days a little brighter.

Thanks, GFF.