Today the NSW Government announced a 5km travel limit for local government areas of concern in Greater Sydney.
That’s it, my final lifeline is gone. My eldest can no longer attend day care. While I have had them both home on some workdays in the last two weeks, there is a vast difference between attending to one child, and attending to constant fighting, snatching, and what feels like endless meal and snack preparations.
“I want to sit on your lap.”
My partner’s job is highly collaborative and he spends much of his day in and out of internal, as well as client, meetings. My job is relatively more solitary, so guess who bears the brunt of the child-minding duties during the working day? Imagine if I, too, had a collaborative job, and had to be stuck to my chair for hours at a time. Both of us would lose our sanity, and in all reality the kids are STILL going to come and interrupt me, because “Mummy, mummy, where are you?” is always the default.
“I need to go toilet.”
There are countless times during the day when I curse how my partner got the luck of the draw and I’m stuck with the juggling act. And unfortunately, this often means any loss of productivity during the day can only be made up once they have gone to bed and I am finally left with some silence. While I watch my partner unwind and browse on his phone with bitter envy, I bring to his attention as many household chores that I can think of which need to be done. It’s only fair, right?
“Mummy, Ella did a poo.” Great, I changed her nappy 20 minutes ago.
Some consolation is that in the first rodeo of lockdown in 2020, I had just returned to work from maternity leave, only to be sent to work from home one week later. My youngest was 7 months old, almost solely dependent on me, and it was so difficult. I felt like I was at breaking point, even though that lockdown was/is going to be shorter. Thankfully now, her attention span has increased, which means my work existence solely relies on the iPad, Cocomelon, Disney+ and countless snacks. The following are my ways to buy some time and silence, particularly in relation to meetings, as that is the main time that interruptions cannot be tolerated for long. I’m always on the lookout for more.
- When going to bed each night and charging your phone, never forget to charge the two iPads and the work laptop.
- Don’t turn the TV on in the morning before the workday starts. Save that for when the meeting is about to start. Lifelines are limited, do not burn them unnecessarily.
- Have some crackers or snacks readily available, so if someone interrupts during a meeting, place them back in front of the TV with said snack.
- If a fight ensues while you’re in a meeting, mute yourself, and ignore it for as long as possible, because it’s dad’s bloody turn to get interrupted; I don’t care anymore, I’ve done enough.
“Oh no, I spilt sprinkles everywhere. Sorry mummy.” Just. Great.
Of course at the end of the day, I am beyond thankful and grateful that my partner and I both still have our jobs, and thankful for not having school-aged children who need home-schooling. That is my main focus to try and get my sanity through the line. How long until I lose my sanity? I’m taking bets.