Lockdown At My House

With the vicious onslaught of COVID-19 news filling our screens and bogging down our minds I thought it the right time to try and bring some peace and encouragement to you.

This is happening around us and to us but it doesn’t have to grind us down or wear us out. I’m in lockdown with five other adults; my boyfriend, my three grown sons and one of their girlfriends. It’s been fractious. It’s been noisy. It’s been tough but what keeps me going is the fact we are together and I’m grateful for that.

We have each other to talk to, to ask questions, to discuss the news and to keep each other buoyant.

But this is at times surreal and also difficult. My boyfriend and I get up early and when we’re having lunch at 1pm the rest of the household is getting up and piling into the kitchen looking for eggs (what’s happened to all the eggs?!) and bacon.

My boyfriend and I are coping with a different style of bread and a different brand of baked beans but the boys are having none of it. They mooch about and complain. They rant about lack of organic bananas in the fruit bowl and no tinned tomatoes. I mean honestly, there are people dying every single day. Do they not care? Do they not see how serious this is?

Lord knows how they would have coped with the 1950s rationing. And then there’s the complaining it’s cold. Have you found your bills rocketing during these wintry days?

They walk around the house in next to nothing and complain it’s cold and ask why I’m too stingy to put the heating on. Honestly, there’s no solution to the stress and the arguments we’ve had. I think this has been the biggest trial for me (even after having the dreaded condition for 18 days).

It makes me realise how ungrateful so many of our young men and women are. And don’t get me started on the food bills and the laundry. And the loud music (!) full of swear words and when I question it they say, “You’re not listening to the words, Mum. You don’t understand it.”

I understand perfectly well that if I was to use those words in a public place I’d get arrested for swearing, for being racist or both and that’s if I don’t get lynched first. We have spent our time doing puzzles and catching up on some Netflix series and dramas. We have played countless games of scrabble and I’ve written a new story thanks to Curtis Brown Creative and their Writing Workshop.

What have your own experiences been like? How have you filled your time?