Ailidh - Primary School Teacher/Stay at Home Mum

My name is Ailidh and I live in a rural village in Argyll (half an hour from Oban) with my partner, Rhuaraidh, and our 3 children who are 3 years old and 2 year old twins. I am a Primary School Teacher but currently on a ‘career break’ to be a stay-at-home-mum. At first I thought that lockdown wouldn’t change much for us because I’m at home with the children anyway but, in actual fact, it has.

My partner has been working from a makeshift desk in our bedroom. He’s a Product Development Engineer and is still busy 8.30am-5pm every day. This has been great as he hasn’t been leaving early for the office so he can help out with breakfast and he's been able to join us for lunch later in the day. It’s sometimes added extra stress if he's been in an important meeting while things get challenging downstairs and there are multiple children wailing/ shouting at the same time!

Our routine has changed hugely. We used to rush out the door in the morning to nursery drop offs 3 days a week and at other times we were going to playgroups in different villages or playdates at friends’ houses. Things have dramatically slowed down for us. In some ways this is lovely as we are spending more time together but in other ways I am definitely missing the adult social contact and I can tell my eldest is definitely missing his friends. It is also difficult not having an outing scheduled to break up our days. Luckily, we are very fortunate to have a nice wee garden and have had lots of sunshine so we've been growing some veg and other things. The house can be chaotic and stressful sometimes, especially as I decided lockdown would be a good time to potty train 22 month old twins! But we’ve been trying to do some nice activities together like baking, painting and crafting…all of which can test my patience at times!

I am really missing my family and have been feeling very emotional about that recently. They live 2 hours away and with such young children, it’s a bit harder to consider travelling and physical distancing. I really hope to see them soon as we usually see each other every 2 or 3 weeks and now it has been over 3 months… the children have changed so much.

Some days I’ve struggled, some days I’ve had a really nice time with the children. I have been keeping in contact with friends on my phone but it’s not the same as having a cup of tea with them while the kids play. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that again soon as I think we all need a breather!