On Thursday lunchtime about three weeks ago, Little Blondie went around the house declaring loudly ‘it’s the weekend!’… She was in the middle of her online end-of-year assessments and, having no exams scheduled for that Friday, wanted everyone in the house (and possibly the village!) to know that she was free until Monday morning. Of course, for Mike and also to some extent for me, Thursday lunchtime does not count as being anywhere near the weekend… Curly however, in her own words, pointed out that she has been on a ‘constant weekend of Saturdays’ since the middle of March… 
She has a point. When the world shut and the country went into lockdown, individual days of the week ceased to have any real meaning. No one leaves the house on weekdays, we no longer go out to church on Sundays, and caravan weekends no longer exist. Even the television schedules have become confusing- with Saturday night ‘comfort viewing’ showing seven evenings a week!
For our poor Curly, weekdays lost their significance very early on into lockdown- school closed on the day her Product Design A level coursework was due to be handed in- indeed for the last few days of school, there was doubt over whether the school closure date, or the handing in date would arrive sooner! With all the confusion and unrest over what was happening in the world, they were given a few extra days to complete the work (the completion day having been set by the school to ensure everyone finished on time!) and this, along with an English assignment which needed finishing were what kept Curly busy for the first week…
The ‘Easter holidays’ followed for the next two weeks, since which Curly has had no set schoolwork to do; with her A Level exams cancelled, there was no sense in the teachers setting any further work… and so weekdays completely lost their meaning for her.
As for the rest of us… well…
Online learning has become Little Blondie’s life- her school are fantastic in setting work in the Online Classrooms. They follow the same timetable as they did previously when they were in the building, setting just enough work to keep the girls busy for the hour long lesson, and teachers are always available by email and classroom chats to answer any questions.
Still being at the lower end of the school they would usually have had no study leave between their summer exams- but acknowledging the unusual circumstances the girls have found themselves in, the pressure is off this year: relaxing, spending time reading, playing games and taking part in family activity has been positively encouraged throughout. 🙂
It’s still not the same though- much as she works quietly and conscientiously through her lessons each day, the knowledge that she’s sitting at home, at the dining table opposite me as I try to work, with Mike upstairs working and Curly around doesn’t really re-create the same atmosphere as a classroom full of similar aged girls, all studying the same thing at once! And, much as we have encouraged her to approach each ‘school day’ with a positive start- eating breakfast and getting dressed, there has to be a difference in feeling between learning while dressed in a smart blouse and fitted skirt, and sitting at home dressed in a comfy Harry Potter t-shirt and leggings!
But at least to some extent, weekdays still have some significance for our Little Blondie…
Mike also still has weekdays; he’s been very fortunate- working in school finance his job has carried on pretty much as normal. After all, whether a school has its pupils actually in the building or learning remotely at home, the money needed for paying staff and building costs remains pretty much the same… and having a mainly computer based job meant it was easy for him to make the transition from working in an office to working in a home ‘office’- in other words instead of travelling into town each day he now works from Games Boy’s old room! The main disadvantage of this being that when the office is only fifteen paces across the landing, the temptation to work longer hours, and at weekends is all too great- Mike’s distinction between weekdays and weekends has become a little ‘blurry’!
As a full time housewife and mum working from home, I’ve never really had a set ‘week’ of my own to follow- rather my life has always revolved around the family, and my daily pattern set around their current needs… With a large family and a husband working regular hours my life has always therefore run to a basic weekly schedule. However, with my little business sometimes it’s been essential to work ‘out of hours’ or at weekends as that’s my free time for working, and at busy times such as in the run up to Christmas I can’t afford to take any days off from my sewing or I risk delays in orders getting sent out.
Little Dolly Clothes Shop was built around the fact that I could run it alongside my family, and was always intended to be worked in my ‘free’ time- either while the children were out at school, or in the evenings once the family were fed and settled for the evening. Perhaps somewhat ironically, lockdown has actually seen me making MORE distinction between weekdays and weekends- to retain some semblance of normality and keep track of the days as much as possible I’ve been deliberately doing different things at the weekends…
I made a conscious decision to do no ‘work’ on Saturdays and Sundays, unless posting updates to Facebook or Instagram, or responding to customer enquiries, and to spend more time with the girls. The glorious April and May weather helped enormously as we spent loads of time sitting out in the garden together and reading- sadly the first time I’ve ever really appreciated relaxing out there; or on cooler days we’ve stayed indoors and enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles and watching films together… 🙂
Even so, life has become rather staid, and every day has become the same. It’s apparently Monday today, and another week has begun… another week full of the same old things- washing, cooking, cleaning, eating, shopping… schoolwork for Little Blondie, work for Mike, Curly trying to make sense of her days, and me just trying to make sense of life and keep the family going- while of course trying to keep in contact with all of the older children and the rest of the wider family…
Another week may have begun, but to all intents and purposes the days currently have no meaning. It may well be Monday back out in the real world that we used to live in, but here in this new world…
It’s simply Day X.
Dolly Clothes Diaries 