It has been forever since I have wrote on my Blog. I go in and out of my hobbies. I flit about from reading to photography to writing and try and do what ever inspires me in the moment.

So here we are in UK lockdown (is it actually an official lockdown??) We are kind of grounded. At the Lynch house we have been relatively lucky.  Tony is a key worker so his job has continued, I have been furloughed from my Dad’s barber shop so we are not in any financial difficulty currently (well no more then usual haha) Joey hasn’t been to school for around four ish weeks now. I’m loosing count to be fair.  He has taken to home schooling absolutely perfectly, he seems to have come on so much with the one to one learning. We have not been affected as of yet by this nasty virus, if you ask Tony he will tell you that back in February we had the virus. We were so poorly with some kind of chest thing, very breathless and had really high fevers, the doctor only asked us if we had traveled to china and we hadn’t so he sent us on our way with a precautionary course of antibiotics as he wasn’t sure what we had.  I’m sure it could of been anything but Tony is convinced. Our thoughts continue to be with all that are affected and our NHS staff and all key workers fighting on the front line.

I’m probably one of those really annoying mum’s that thrive on having my kids at home. I am absolutely loving it. I don’t really want them to go back to school. I have enjoyed planning their education and watching their little brains learn new things and how proud they are when they do! I don’t think I have every blogged about Penny’s hearing issues and speech delay (maybe another time) but she has come on leaps and bounds being at home and I think having the extra time with Joey has helped. She is starting to speak in short sentences. While I don’t think many people will understand what she is saying I now can and this is a massive achievement for us. She has also absolutely smashed potty training!!

Watching the kids just be kids has been amazing, they can wear what they like, play what they like and learn in a way they like. I have always sort of hated how much our lives are controlled by school. By always I mean since I was in school! I wanted to raise free spirits from the moment I was pregnant and I can really see the influence school has on the kids with how different they have been at home. I am not school bashing in the slightest this is just my feelings. I have spent a little bit of time researching home schooling but I don’t think I am brave enough to follow through with it. Joey also absolutely loves his little friends and does miss playing with them and I don’t have the heart to take it away.

We are very much missing our family, but feel so blessed that currently they are all healthy. My mum has self isolated with symptoms but without testing we will never know if she had the virus or not although she was rather poorly. I hope very much that it wont be long till we are back to normal.

Overall I can’t say that we are unhappy in our lockdown bubble. We are making the most of lazing around, doing things at home that we enjoy and just spending time together. I promised myself that my children would look back on this time and think about how much fun we had. I don’t want them to hold scars of fear, suffering and hardship if I can help it.

My advice to anyone struggling would be, take that time for yourself even if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom with a coffee. Let the kids stay up late, lay around in your jammies in the morning, eat those cakes, don’t try and force schooling in a way that a school would, spend the time to find your child’s interests and try and teach them using those. Just enjoy the time that has been given to you to spend every moment you can with them. Soon this will all be over and life will be back to make that special time so much harder to grab.

Thanks for reading!

Amy x

I’ve be meaning to get this out for a while now, It’s something that really bugs me (although I do feel I may get slated for this feeling). I’m a mother to a son and daughter. We are in the midst of female empowerment , body positivity is becoming more widespread and mental health is becoming less taboo (hopefully). This is so brilliant I’m so happy I am raising my daughter with all these confident powerful women to look up to and aspire to. I see constant social media posts and memes about how we should raise our daughters to love themselves just as they are skinny, curvy, short or tall, that their heart is the most beautiful thing and they need to believe this. Absolutely this is correct! We need to put this in our daughters minds! I have no Doubt about it. BUT!!!!! WHAT ABOUT MY SON!

I only ever see posts about raising sons to be good to women (I will raise be son to be good to anyone and everyone) Over the last couple of years we have been made more and more aware that Male suicide is higher then ever. It’s very rare that our sons, fathers, brothers and uncles feel they can ask for help. I do feel like men get left behind. In a world of equality I sometimes feel life isn’t so equal. I want to raise my little boy to also know that he is beautiful, it doesn’t matter if he is short, tall, muscly he should love himself no matter what! I feel like this message needs to be spread around more too! Men need help with their self esteem just as much as women!

I guess what I’m trying to say is lets empower our CHILDREN not just our daughters! Then baby there will be empowerment all around!

What do you think?