"Local inspection" with a mother of two primary school children
The current coronavirus period presents us with major challenges. Families with younger children in particular, coupled with working from home and homeschooling, are reaching their limits. We invited a mother with two primary school children for an interview. She talks about her everyday life and also about which of her strengths are particularly in demand now.
What is the biggest difference in your life compared to the time before Corona?
I'm at home with the children all day, I have even less time for myself, I have to take care of several things at once all the time. Everyone wants something from me ...
How do you keep in touch with the outside world?
Zoom team meetings with work, phone calls with my parents, WhatsApp with friends, a bit of Facebook in the evening.
What is the biggest challenge in your new everyday life?
To do justice to everything (job, children, homeschooling, household, parents) and to keep a good mood at the same time, because the truth is that it is an enormous turning point in their lives, especially for the schoolchildren.
How do you manage to juggle children, husband, homeschooling, work and housework, including cooking?
By getting up 2 hours before the others and falling into bed dead tired at 9pm. I try to stick to precise structures, which I usually implement well with the others, but then I realize that I can't do my own things...
How does a day work for you?
I'm the first to get up, make breakfast and try to do little things around the house. Ideally, I sit at the computer for an hour before the children get up. "School" starts at 9.00 a.m., the learning sheets are worked through and there are breaks in between, where the children usually go into the garden. It gets tough when I have Zoom meetings or important phone calls. It's often the case that the children want something from me or are hungry right then.
Around 12:00-13:00 I make lunch, then it's usually lunch break for everyone until 14:00. In the afternoon, I try to work again, the children are free to play, read or something similar. In the late afternoon, we make something to eat again and eat together. We usually play a board game with the children in the evening, but sometimes I'm already too tired.
How intensive is the contact with the school? How many assignments and exercises are requested?
Both of my children's teachers have a WhatsApp group where information comes in every day. If you don't read it carefully every day, you're usually already behind. In addition, the learning assignments for the week are sent by email and you are also supposed to practise on a learning app (Anton), which we hardly ever get to. After two weeks, the learning assignments are collected in a box at school.
In the first week we only had a few learning sheets, so I was quite relaxed, but then it got more and more every week. Now they also hand out exercises for science, handicrafts, religion, English and music, some of which you have to do together with the children.
The teachers say that you don't have to do everything and that it's just repetition, but you do feel under pressure if you're not one of the "hard workers".
How do you and your husband exercise, how do you keep fit? How do your children exercise?
The children get a lot of exercise in the garden, so I have no concerns about that. I bought a special children's yoga DVD, but I haven't had time for that yet. My children's ballet teacher also regularly sends them videos that they can dance to.
Me and my husband hardly get any exercise, we don't even manage to go for a half-hour walk every day. I actually wanted to use the coronavirus period to go for an hour's walk every morning. But as I almost don't get through my day as it is, I sacrifice this time and do other things that have been left undone.
What is the most stressful thing in this new world?
The thousands of questions from the children! And cooking three times a day, my children eat so much at once!
How does your employer contact you? How does it all work?
I talk to my boss on the phone regularly (several times a day) and we have an hour-long team meeting via Zoom every two days. That works well.
What are you most looking forward to when this is all over? Assuming Corona is "over" tomorrow, what would be the very first thing you would do?
I would pack up my children and go to my parents' house. My father is a cancer patient, so we probably won't be able to see him for a long time.
What is your tip for other families with schoolchildren who may be bored or have the ceiling falling on their heads?
My children have never been bored in these three weeks. We thought about so many things in advance that I don't even get to now. I involve them a lot in everyday life (cooking, tidying up, baking, laundry, ...) and I let them Skype with their friends once a day.
What is your most important strength in these "corona times"?
That I am a woman and can do many things at the same time, that I am positive about the future despite everything.
