We’re rooting for you Boris | Verity Lush

At least, I hope they are – whatever one’s political stance, this is a fellow human. A father, a father-to-be, a son and a partner.

Some people, including a mayor, had the total lack of humanity to suggest that due to Johnson’s political actions, he deserves to be ill. Of course he doesn’t.

I’ve been writing in this paper since January about how the government needed to be doing something about this novel virus, and I certainly think Johnson should have acted sooner, but my goodness – nobody deserves to be suffering.

Emotions would be better spent considering our next votes more carefully.

I am glad my older kids can deal with this lockdown

I am counting myself so very fortunate that my girls are old enough to have some self-regulation and independence. If this lockdown had happened 10 years ago, then it’s fair to say I would have been driven to distraction, not to mention exhaustion, by now.

I like routine and that’s definitely been the best way forward in the Lush household thus far. By having a Monday-Friday routine, it still leaves some room for ‘weekend’, when there is no routine, thereby giving just a bit of a break.

I don’t think for one second that this would work for anyone else necessarily. We are in such an unusual set of circumstances that you just need to do what is right for you.

Everyone is saying the same thing on Facebook

If there’s one thing that’s become apparent in the mothering world of social media since this lockdown began, it’s that mums of the country know how to have a bit of a laugh and cheer each other up.

There are various groups on Facebook that have been created with this aim in mind and most started the same way – the odd jest about wine for breakfast, locking the kids out of the house, losing one’s maternal sanity and so on.

All fun to begin with when it’s novel and amusing, but it gets a tad tedious after a fortnight of it and not much else.

Newsfeeds clogged with one joke after another about having nothing but food and wine for company can only make you laugh for so long.

I guess it just goes to show that when you’re sat at home on your own there’s really not much to prevent your thoughts from spiralling in one big loop, and that there only so many jokes about lockdown that we can make.

Let’s face it, it’s slim pickings for comedic material once the honeymoon (I use that fun term loosely) is over.

The irony of some of the groups is they started because of an alleged desire not to be like the ‘judgy mums’ who were setting up home schools in their kitchens with wall charts and metre rules.

Sadly of course, this was judgmental in itself.

If your way of coping is to set up a learning space, knock yourself out.

And if it’s by sitting in bed eating French Fancies, stuff ‘em in.

The only way we can hope to come out of this is alive.

It seems that the female of the species can’t even resist judging how others do lockdown in their own homes. We should be bringing each other up, instead of knocking each other down.

And here I am, judging those who judge, perhaps?

It’s easy on social media – you just leave the groups that bore you.

If only it were still that easy in day-to-day life.

But home we must stay.

This is the short term.

We must stick it out, stay at home and stay safe to protect the NHS, if we hope to see the long term.