When you have more than one child, it can sometimes feel like you never get quality time with them individually. Time together, by necessity, is most often spent as a family in parks and forests, or at socially-distanced playdates. It can be fun, but it can also be busy and chaotic.
And while siblings can be best friends, much of that precious ‘family time’ is also often spent squabbling – or, particularly in the case of a wider age gap, vying for the attention of the parent or carer.
By virtue of the fact my daughter, who’s eight, is pretty independent (she even cooked us a three-course meal), I often ask her to take on extra responsibility for her younger brother, who’s just four. This “help” became even more vital during lockdown, when it was a logistical nightmare to combine working from home with homeschooling my kids. Being able to trust her to help get her little brother dressed (akin to trying to dress an octopus), get them both breakfast and invent games for
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One day during lockdown, Germaine Douglas walked into the living room where her 12-year-old son, Kairos, spends much of his time and asked why he had the TV on while studying. “I like to hear the news updates when I’m working,” came his response. “I don’t want to miss something important.”
“I have never been able to get my children interested in the news or politics,” Douglas tells HuffPost UK. “My child is now definitely more politically aware than before this, 100%.”
In April, when the online tutoring service MyTutor asked 700 parents in the UK how they’ve been approaching homeschooling their children, 51% said they are using this period to teach them things they normally wouldn’t at school.
Primary and secondary schools in England will close until February half term – meaning parents across the country are facing homeschooling once more.
The decision, announced by Boris Johnson on Monday evening as part of the nation’s third lockdown, follows decisions to close schools for most of January in Scotland and Wales, and until the start of February in Northern Ireland.
For those balancing work and childcare, it marks a return to the situation in spring 2020, which left many parents utterly exhausted.
The next few weeks will be tough, no doubt. But to help us through them, we asked therapists and education specialists for their advice.
Yvadney Davis with her husband Emmanuel and children MG and Lolo.
It’s a feeling other parents can relate to. Homeschooling fatigue has set in, as parents have spent months juggling school worksheets with their own work calls. The novelty of having kids at home all day every day has worn off, because as taboo as it may be to admit, no one signed up to 24/7 parenting.
“At least during the warmer months the boys could play outside, albeit for about 10 minutes at a time before pestering me for a snack, a drink or to tell a tale,” says Jamie Beaglehole, who’s homeschooling Lyall, 12, and Rich, 11, alongside his husband, Tom.