2173 cases
Recovered: 410
Deceased: 25

Easter Monday, also known as family day, is over. And we are approaching our third week of lockdown. For me, probably the most difficult aspect of lockdown is my children. Some days I am confident that I’ve got this, other days I berate myself for being a terrible parent.

My son is really struggling. He does not understand, at the age of four, why he is kept inside most of the time. He is always busy and on the move. He has become really aggressive towards our dogs and he hurts them. Nothing I am doing seems to help for this. I understand that he is frustrated, and he doesn’t know how to deal with all his feelings, but I am exhausted of running after him and my dogs to make sure nothing happens.

My daughter seems to take all of this in her stride. She is a gentle soul, and pretty much follows me everywhere I go. I think she is also struggling, obviously – this is hard on them, but she does seem to handle the whole situation much better.

This morning I started our day with a homeschool lesson. My son has literally zero attention span. He is bouncing all over the place, and wants to jump three steps ahead from where we are. Plus, I am definitely allergic to this craft glue. Non-toxic my arse. My eyes are still watering and I cannot stop sneezing – the rest of the lesson will have to wait until my tablets or a natural resistance have kicked in. Or no more lessons involving glue. Maybe the teachers use this glue as a hidden coping mechanism. No wonder they all look so bloody happy all the time.

For some reason I managed to get myself embroiled in a Facebook debate today. Never ever do that. Ever. There is no convincing the stupid of facts. In fact, Mark Twain got it right: ‘Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience’. What about, you might ask. Well, see, there’s still this egg challenge on Facebook involving sugar, a raw egg and a shot of alcohol. There was a very judgemental post about all the eggs rather feeding people than being consumed as part of a challenge, and of course, I rose to that challenge right away. There is just so much stress out there right now – a little light-hearted banter around raw eggs won’t solve world hunger, but it made a number of people feel better. And quite frankly, I am all for anything right now that will make people feel better.

One of my favourite movies from the early 1990’s is Groundhog Day. It starts Bill Murray in his prime, wooing a pretty and bright Andie McDowell. He somehow triggers a loop, and is forced to relive the same day over and over and over and over. You get the picture. Nothing he does changes the fact that he wakes up, every morning, at the stroke of 6am, to the tune of “I Got You, Babe.” Eventually he stops fighting and embraces the opportunity to learn and change, and he becomes quite accomplished at several skills, also growing as a person substantially. His lesson, which is also our lesson: If you cannot change your circumstances, you’ve got to change yourself. Does he get the girl and escape the loop? You’ll have to watch the movie for that – no spoilers here. It’s worth it, you can thank me later.

In some ways lockdown reminds me of Groundhog Day. There are again rumours that lockdown might be extended. Online there are the same opinions, every day, reiterated by the same people. Currently, I believe The Trump says quinine is a great treatment for Covid-19. I knew I should have stocked up on more G&T for my bar. Quinine! Who knew? The online conspiracists are vocal and very very opinionated. And it is so scary that so many sane people can believe such amazing theories.

My daily reliving is the same. Get up, psych myself up to coping level, remind myself I really have loads of people depending on me just being able to do my job. Remind myself there is absolutely nothing I can do about what is going on in the world right now. Be the best version of myself that I am able to be, today. Learn the lesson again: If I cannot change my circumstances, I’ve got to change myself.