Do we really want things to go back to ‘normal’?

Stephanie Cantrell - 9 Apr 20

I sit at my make-up table – my temporary office for the last three weeks of working from home. Schools have been closed since the beginning of February, and by law I, along with my two toddlers, must wear a mask if we venture outside.

We’re cut off from our family back home as the airports and various routes from east to west continue to close. We’re cut off from our friends as we practice social distancing. And we’re cut off from work as we continue to support university teaching online via a very temperamental internet connection.

But we are not cut off from our children. 

As we work in our makeshift offices (the master bedroom and the spare room), we can hear our 3 year old directing instructions for a shopping game. We can hear our 2 year old hunting for his ‘wand’ (a chopstick wrapped in glittery washi tape). We can break for coffee or lunch and head to our own kitchen rather than the staff room, toddlers hanging off our thighs and asking to try a sip of our drink.

We know what our children have done with their day. We can hear and see their joys and sadnesses as they navigate through their day and negotiate their relationship with each other. We know which one ate all their lunch and which threw their food on the floor. We know who really drew on the wall with marker, and where all the yoghurts from the fridge have gone.

We don’t return from work after 5pm, exhausted from the day and too tired to cook dinner. We can start a dish mid-afternoon, our kids helping to prep the vegetables, then leave it to simmer until we eat at 6pm. We can bake. We can actually make and eat breakfast with our children before we start our working day.

For years my husband and I have spoken about the dream of having our own business or working freelance so we can work from home. We don’t want to miss the baby years with our children. The two hour window that we normally see them outside of our office hours is inadequate. Now this situation has been forced upon us and we are home.

And through the cloud of worry I feel about the deaths and heartbreak in England, the strain upon healthcare workers, the financial and economic uncertainty about the future, I am grateful . Because for once, we’re not missing it. We are with our children.

Stephanie Cantrell

Stephanie is a working mother of two. She teaches yoga alongside her day job and runs a facebook group for like-minded parents. Stephanie is from England but lives with her family in Vietnam. She enjoys yoga, running, cooking vegetarian dishes and travelling with her husband and children.

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