The Mummy groups are visions of home-school perfection, gourmet food made from scratch and smiling children. All I seem to be doing is shouting and begging the kids to hold a pencil... Am I getting the #StayHomeStaySafe thing all wrong?
Let me tell you a little secret… No one is getting this right because no one was expecting to be locked in and acting like a trained primary school teacher! Don’t get sucked into thinking you have to compete with anyone else’s Instagram life, but I highly recommend a few of these tips to find a moment of peace whether you have one hyper active sprite or a small team.
Delegation in the form of Joe Wicks!
For 30 mins a day, hand your children over to Joe for a PE lesson, he's live on social media and uploading workouts daily so you can catch up when the kids start playing up. Now there are lots of ways to do this, as a family on a smart TV, on phones or tablets in the garden or bedrooms but Mums here's what I suggest:
Sit back on the sofa with a cup of tea, kids lined up facing Joe at the ready for star jumps and squats. They start, you intermittently shout encouragement and random things like knees higher or keep it going.
You enjoy a break, preferably with a face mask on or some hydrating lip & eye rescue!
Team work around the house
Whatever their age or sex your kids can be helping around the house. A good starting point is sorting the washing and helping hang or fold it. Even sending them round the house to collect dirty clothes or running the hoover round the living room are manageable tasks that should keep them on their toes. Make it a race or challenge of the day with a reward to keep them excited.
Board games to bring you all together
You might be a Monopoly loving family, card players or have fantasies of raising a chess champion. It might be time to pull all the old games out and make time for some fun that does tie the family to a screen. If you don't have any games at home think about what you can make like twister with a flat sheet and markers or scrabble by cutting letters out of paper (or go wild and order some on Amazon).
Colouring because its not just for kids...
Do not underestimate the power of this age old classic art form; mainly because it should buy you about 15-30 minutes of peace if they are past drawing on walls and each other. If they are still creating modern art tattoos on each others faces then wait till they are in bed, grab the colouring books and a stash of felt tips and colour to your hearts content... You deserve this.
Movie night for the whole clan
If you haven't already had 3 movie nights this month are you even really in isolation? Have you binged watched a series on Netflix or recently discovered the many movie channels you didn't even know you had! A word of advice on choices, this is not the time for Top Boy or anything relating to zombies or wars. Aim for Jennifer Aniston type romantic comedies, Melissa McCarthy laughs or Will Ferrell level slap stick... BBC News is damaging our nervous systems enough without adding to our stress.
Keep following the blog to get more tips, laughs and ideas for your skin and get us all through the isolation!
