By Louise Flanagan
It’s been four years since the country locked down for our first rodeo with Covid – March 12, 2020. To mark the occasion, I’m going to do a lockdown lookback focusing on good family memories.
Leo’s speech was like something from the sci-fi film, Independence Day. It came after other European heads of state delivered similar addresses though, so we knew it was no joke. The arrival of Covid really didn’t suit our usual ‘Ah sure, it’ll be grand’ mantra.
And so it was announced that the schools were to close. We wondered if they would stay closed until after Easter. And what about St. Patrick’s Day?! Would the parade be cancelled? Surely not. The pubs would open on March 17, wouldn’t they?! That was one of our first rookie errors.
My son, Evan, celebrates his birthday on St. Patrick’s Day and I remember feeling sorry for him that he’d miss the chance to have a party with his friends. Little did we know that everyone in the country (and the world) would miss a birthday celebration – at least one birthday celebration. We really had no idea what was ahead of us. Would it have helped to know? Who’d dare tell the lambs in spring what fate the later seasons bring?
Our kids and grandkids will be completing history projects on lockdown in the years ahead
For the first while, schools didn’t have much contact with home. Mainly because there were issues with technology – effective channels of communication were scarcely rolled out. Books had been left at school. Ah sure, it’ll be grand. A week or two off in the unseasonably good weather would do the kids no harm.
The lockdown weather was glorious. My kids were at a great age to batten down the hatches and enjoy time together; six, four and two. We got a paddling pool for them and lazed about, revelling in the inability to go anywhere. No expectations, just time. Precious time.
My husband pitched a tent in the back garden and the bigger kids enjoyed a night under the stars with their dad. I stayed inside with the youngest. I could hear my own mother’s words flying out of my mouth; “You’ll catch your death of cold out there. Don’t come crying to me in the morning if you have a sore back.”
It was at that moment that I knew who the fun parent was.
Things like that made the first few weeks of lockdown enjoyable for many of us. It must have been a very different experience for others, including frontline staff, and obviously we were glued to the telly for daily updates and worried about how things would pan out. But no doubt about it – we made the most of it with the kids.
Then the online learning started in earnest. As a teacher myself, it was a struggle to teach with three young kids under my feet. I decided to potty train Conor, seeing as I had the time at home.
That was all well and good until I was teaching a class live and Conor could be heard shouting in the background. “Mammy, I did a big poo! Wipe my bum!”
“Sorry, girls, I’ll be right back. Just ummmm, read the rest of the page until I come back!”
There were dodgy home haircuts, a toilet roll shortage, a scramble for hand sanitiser and don’t chat about bread.
The rules about what we could and couldn’t buy in the supermarket still have me baffled. It has been a crazy ride. Our kids and grandkids will undoubtedly be doing history projects about lockdown in years to come.
So, have a think about it and write down the good memories you have of lockdown for future reference. We’re unlikely to forget the worry and the sadness of the pandemic, but give the good memories some airtime too.
Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra. www.dragonterra.ie
She writes a weekly column which is published every Thursday in the Donegal News.
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