Surviving Lockdown With a Toddler

Who would have thought almost eleven months down the line we are still facing a pandemic which has changed our lives completely?

How are you coping? Surviving or thriving? I’d say I’m a pretty even mix of both.

What I would do for a date night and to eat a three course meal without hearing, ‘Mummy’ 37 times in the space of what must only be five minutes because I eat so fast to get on to the next task.

With a three-year-old at home, I am more than happy to admit it’s been difficult. In the thick of winter, living in the north of Scotland, I don’t think it’s been over 3 degrees for at least four weeks now, or at least that’s what it feels like. She absolutely loves being outdoors, and would quite happily adventure for hours, but little ones get cold so quickly we are extremely limited as to what we can do in almost freezing temperatures. Never mind the fact that she walks slower than a tortoise.

Last year we took good of ‘Lockdown 1.0’ and renovated our garden which has been something we’ve wanted to do for years now. Of course we put down a decking area, which is currently a complete slip hazard meaning I can’t even let her roam in the garden for half an hour here and there.

So how am I surviving? Well, I’m only just, but here’s my top tips on getting through lockdown with a toddler at home.

1. Don't overthink your craft projects

I follow many mum pages on social media, and how I envy the time and enthusiasm they must have when it comes to setting up craft activities which would only last ten minutes in my case. My three-year-old is very like her mum, see a job, get it done, no messing around!

My commitment to craft sessions is probably a total of two, maybe three times on a good week. And even then, it does not get much more exciting than some Little Brian paint sticks and some paper.

I’ve heard first-hand from fellow mums who say they see countless stories online of what other mums are doing with their children and they are racked up with guilt that they, “aren’t as fun”. Do not fall into this trap!!

You can really make an activity out of anything, this week we read, The Hungry Caterpillar, and shortly afterwards rolled up some balls of play-doh to make a caterpillar to join us for lunch. She was absolutely delighted, until she spotted him in the kitchen bin a couple of days later. Lesson learned.

I have to admit though that earlier this week I had some ironing to do, so I gave myself a pep talk, and looked out the glue and glitter for a guaranteed half hour of distraction. Sometimes its all about compromise! I won’t mention the pot of glitter that fell all over the floor beforehand… any one else hate glitter?

2. Make a checklist.

I LOVE a to do list, I was gifted Mrs Hinch’s, ‘The Little Book of Lists’, at the beginning of lockdown and found it really helpful to give me a focus and structure for my week.

I usually sit down on a Sunday and write anything I have on for that week, not that it’s much at the moment. But this keeps me motivated (I like ticking things) and helps me to remember, baby brain got me bad!

What I also do is make a daily list on my daughter’s play whiteboard, it’s nothing elaborate, maybe six things at the most. Often there are two or three ‘Mummy jobs’ on there, generally house related tasks and then two or three things she would enjoy doing. It means each morning; we have a look and I talk through all of our ‘jobs’ for the day.

She now has a great understanding that Mummy has things to do too, and once I get through the boring tasks, the sooner we get on to the fun stuff! She also LOVES putting ticks in the little boxes I draw; she is already so like me!

3. Bake something!

It’s a given that children like to make mess. Baking is something I’ve had to try and have an open mind about in our house.

I used to have my own bakery business when I still lived at home with my parents, and I will admit I have a bit of OCD, so when I see watery icing running down the side of a squished cupcake a tiny bit of me dies a little inside.

I am getting better though, I mean last week I even let her crack the egg. When I asked her what her favourite part of baking was, she told me it was cracking the egg, shock horror! The whole egg went in to the mix…

But baking doesn’t have to be anything fancy, I’ll often pick up one of those ready-made cake mix boxes when I’m doing the weekly shop and I know I have at least one activity for the week covered.

If you want to experiment a bit, I’d highly recommend taking a look at Jane’s patisserie, we’ve made a few things from her website and our two favourites have to be her Lemon Drizzle Cake and her Jammie Dodger Blondies!!

Another super simple recipe is Cupcake Jemma’s No Bake Fridge Cake, we love making this as anything goes and you can pretty much raid your cupboards and make it what you want it to be.

4. Fresh air

Nursery started back in August and we got a good run at it until things shut down again after Christmas.

One thing I realised on our first day off for the Christmas holidays was just how much those three hours a day did for her, she wants – and is willing - to learn all hours of the day. The difference from age two to three I found quite mind blowing, her speech, her skills, her energy(!) it just grew and grew!

I quickly realised that I need to get this tiny human out at least once a day if I wanted my usual easy bedtime routine. As I mentioned earlier, the weather isn’t great so little fingers get cold pretty quickly, no matter how many layers and pairs of gloves you have.

What we have started doing however is getting her out on her bike. One of the traits she seems to have picked up from her Daddy is the ability to drag out a task for as long as humanly possible. So, by taking the bike it means I can get from A to B quicker whilst also burning some energy for her.

At the moment, we can travel only for essential purposes so we are a bit limited as to where we can go and as we are inland a bit a lot of the paths and country walks are completely frozen over. But at least we are heading into Spring rather than Winter.

Getting out once a day I find really helps me too, I find that I’ve achieved something else if I can get a decent walk in. This one leads me nicely to my next tip…

5. Self care for you, Mama

Being a mum is not easy at the best of times never mind being confined to where we can go and who we can see.

I promise you, you are doing enough and you are doing an amazing job. Remember our littles don’t see what everyone else is doing on Facebook or Instagram, so don’t compare yourself to them.

Think of how many, ‘insta vs. reality’ moments are happening whilst those pictures aren’t being taken and I am sure everything isn’t as perfect as it looks. Find time to do things you want to do, whether you set your alarm ten minutes earlier and just have a cuppa before everyone else gets up.

Take a bath, light some candles grab some chocolate and bubble away. Try banning the TV for one night and read a book. Find something you enjoy and do it for you!

Remember you have to look after yourself, at the end of the day, you are the one taking care of your kids, so if you don’t take care of yourself, how can you be do the best job possible?

6. Finally, make note

What we have experienced this last year is something we will speak about and future generations will speak about for many years to come.

I have a journal which I write in every year for our daughter’s birthday, but I’ve actually written an additional three entries during the last year just so she can read back and see what we could and couldn’t do. The window visits, the rainbows, the lack of toilet paper… it doesn’t need to be much, but write some bits down whilst your remember so that when they ask you about it, you can share what went on in 2020 and what looks to be for most of 2021 too.

(I even kept Boris’ letter!)

And that’s it!

I hope you got something from this post, how else are you commenting below? I’d love to hear your suggestions below.