Pen Green Centre for children and their families

We have been really lucky during lockdown, my eldest son didn’t get bored the whole time. There are only 18 months between the boys, so they have been playing together, spending time together, so they didn’t miss the other children – their friends – too much. He only attends nursery for three hours each day, he didn’t miss it too much. Sometimes he would ask about it, but he didn’t miss it too much. It’s been alright, we’ve been lucky with the two at home they didn’t get too bored! We were in the garden lots, our house has a nice garden, with a trampoline, lots of toys and bikes. We live in a nice area here too, so we’ve been out on the bikes lots. We didn’t miss too much and the boys liked having their Daddy home for three weeks as well! Just spending time together. We’ve been a happy family and lucky family. I can’t complain too much, because it was crazy with it all at the beginning. It was scary when it first started, the shopping was a bit weird, but we’ve been okay.

My husband had three weeks off work, but he is back now. There was a quiet period, but that’s stopped now. He’s a lorry driver and now he can go back. I have lost my job, because I had been working part-time, for an agency, and when I asked to come back they said they just wanted full-time people now. I think I will start looking again after September, because the boys will be starting school and nursery, so I’m going to be busy for two weeks, staying next to the school! So, I will see how they cope and then look after that. I can’t apply for lots of hours because my husband finished at about 8am in the morning, so I can’t start at 6am when some places want to start a normal shift. I will be looking for part-time hours, which fit with two kids – not easy!

I missed meeting with friends the most. We have lots of family and friends with children, so we are lucky. They are Romanian as well. We missed parks too! We used to go to the swimming pool and out of town, but we couldn’t because of this. I have missed my family as well, my Mum couldn’t come over from Romania, that was tough. The last time she came was Christmas, which isn’t too long ago, but we call her every day, lots. We have also missed going on holiday abroad because of COVID. We could have, we’d planned to, but we weren’t sure which country to go to.  We are lucky we hadn’t booked anything, because we nearly booked something and then after this we were like ‘Oh, we would’ve been disappointed!’ We aren’t going anywhere this year, I’m scared to go with the children, I don’t want to risk it. Definitely not this year and well see what happens. We don’t want to have to self-isolate when we come back, we don’t know what would happen in the hotels. I wouldn’t want to come back and my husband have to stay isolated. This year we are going to wait for this to calm down and hope that soon it passes. We have been very lucky with the weather, we’ve had the sun and the paddling pool out sometimes.

We certainly appreciate more now: nature and being outdoors. We are lucky, there hasn’t been much difference during the day, as my husband works night shifts we are usually altogether during the day anyway. We are home, everybody’s home, together. We appreciate our family more, understand and appreciate the time together; that has been really important. We’ve been able to spend time with family, and where possible, with friends. Now we understand that to be healthy is more important than everything. You don’t care as much about money and economics as such.