“Express yourself”

Single parenting young children is challenging on any given day. Add a pandemic in the mix and you’ve got your hands full! I have become their teacher and a friend while already a provider and a mother. This means I school them, I do play time with them and I care for them. I am always with them. It is very easy to lose yourself but all the more important to take care. A part of my solution has been to conglomerate my interests with those of my children’s. For example, now that I am finished with the backbreaking yet satisfying task of teaching even the last of my children to ride a bicycle, I am rewarded with the best training partners for my runs. I can hardly keep up! Similarly, summers spent camping with our tent and hiking on nature trails have proven to be our saviour as we now enjoy nature outings equally. In order to get some quiet reading time with a good book, I encourage my kids to complete that part of their curriculum at the same time. School classes on-line give me an opportunity to do the same. And so on.

While it is my role to give my children structure and discipline, I do have to give credit to my kids for doing isolation fun right! This week, for example, was marked by COVID hair cuts, purple hair dye, orange finger nails and pink toe nails. Nothing like self-expression!

End of week five.