To all the parents struggling, to all the human beings struggling. I feel you. I feel you and I cry with you and I tremble with compassion for you. 

We're all struggling right now, and suffering is not a competition - but here are a few thoughts and things to support parents in particular, because that's one of the labels with which I identify so I'm having these struggles too. 

THINGS FIRST (because who has time to read a whole blog) - some fun bits of silliness which might divert your family for a little while. 

COLOURING IN - two lovely colouring in pics based on our 2019 production IN THE WILLOWS and our 2018 production LITTLE MERMAID from our wonderful illustrator friend Elinor Tapler. And remember colouring in is a calming activity for adults as well as children. It's OK to go over the lines. In colouring as in life. (what does that even mean? Who cares we're in lockdown, be abstract if you wanna be abstract).

MAKE YOUR OWN MUSIC VIDEO Some of you may have seen some of our #LockdownParody videos starring me and Will and our two children. Just a bit of silliness, but why not make your own. Back when it was touring the UK in 2019 we were humbled and entertained by some brilliant videos of our fans young and old rapping songs from IN THE WILLOWS so we thought we'd let you all have a go. Here's a LYRIC SHEET for EASY LIFE - there’s no need to do the whole thing, or go wild and re-write it (like we do in this week's #LockdownParody) and here's the INSTRUMENTAL BEAT (or if you're up for a challenge go ahead and create your own!) Also here's the music video we made of it last year (below) if you want some more inspiration. Massive thanks to my Co writers and composers Keiran Merrick and Pippa Cleary for letting us share this. Remember to tag us all on social once you've made your masterpiece - @MettaTheatre . And just like colouring in - anyone can rap. I'm living for someone filming a music video of their nan - as you know WE DREAM BIG IN THE WILLOWS - so please make my dream come true! And get the whole family involved - everyone can be creative. 

THOUGHTS SECOND 

Home-schooling. Let's hope my children's teachers don't read this but for the first 7 weeks of lockdown I didn't know there was an app (ClassDojo - causer of so much stress) through which the school were sending up to a dozen activities through PER DAY. The first week was ok - no pressure from the school, but unfortunately my husband (and co artistic director) Will assumed that was still the case in week two so when he found the notifications annoying and the app poorly designed he just assumed I’d had the message from school about it too, and DIDN'T TELL ME ABOUT IT. Then a colleague mentioned the stress of the daily reporting to school, uploading work and videos and I had that slightly sick feeling like when you discover 100 unread emails. And weirdly coincidentally the school said they were ringing us to check in the following day. Suffice to say we did not complete over 100 'lessons' in 24 hours and nor do we complete the daily allocation even now that we're on top of it. As a compulsive and life long over achiever it's a struggle not to stress over it but friends, life is short, and if we're to look back on this time as a gift or a blessing (which for my mental health I am trying to do) the gift will have been how much time we got to spend with our children doing random things like making a rocket out of cardboard boxes, painting dragons on pebbles turning them into dragons eggs or just staring into space with them and allowing them to learn the value of boredom. So be kind to yourself and your children with the distance learning / home-schooling / activity completion shaming. And if you're concerned about them falling behind their peers but let's say they're very against the idea of anything that feels like a lesson - it's eminently possible to sneak in stealth phonics (reading the control panel inside your cardboard rocket) and stealth maths board games. Though possibly harder when they're at the level of quantum mechanics or differential calculus. 

Final thoughts because WE'RE PARENTS AND WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ BLOGS. let's do bullet points to keep it snappy. 

  • Screen time. It's fine, forgive yourself. And it's also fine to use it as a bribe for completing home-schooling tasks and /or any other household tasks. That also holds true for when this is over. 

  • Other people [non parents] trying to contact you all the time. Tell them your hours (mine are 10-1, Will's are 2-5) and then ignore them outside of those hours. And forgive yourself for feeling like a shit friend or creative collaborator. 

  • It's totally fine to have zoom meetings in the bathroom if that's the only room with a lock. 

  • It's also totally fine to turn the video off in zoom meetings if they're big-ish and standard to mute your audio - which makes it easier to have kids around, especially if you can listen to the meeting audio over headphones. 

  • It's OK to cry. Every day. And in front of your children. Especially in front of your children. Also you can lie on the floor and cry in those zoom meetings once you've turned the video off. And make sure you forgive yourself for that. 

  • Lockdown has taught me that I have proper full on tech phobia and find the onslaught of digital communication both overwhelming and anxiety inducing. I spent 30 minutes this afternoon trying to get a bloody link to work in the motherloving Class Dojo app, and eventually gave up and made an IRL maths game out of bits of screwed up loo roll. It's OK to cry about things like that too, as well as the 'real' crisis. And forgive yourself for it. 

  • Just generally forgive yourself. You're doing really well. And your children love you. Unless they're teenagers. But they'll remember they love you again too, eventually. And then they'll be belatedly grateful for all that stealth differential calculus you taught them. 

  • I don't know how to turn off the bullet points so I'd better end it there. WILL, HELP ME TURN OFF THE BULLET POINTS…