It’s 9:15 at night and I’m sitting on the sofa with the cat for company, looking at a blank page. It’s not because the muse has suddenly struck, there’s not a screed of brilliant prose which I just have to get out. No, in common with millions of others, it’s because it’s the first chance I’ve had today to do some work.
The house is far from quiet – upstairs I can hear my eldest girl getting in and out of bed to chat to my wife, who is working in the office, and I’m expecting the youngest to arrive here any minute. The cat is snoring, and the floor looks like a skip full of Lego has been dropped from a helicopter.
Lockdown number – well, I live in Wales so I’ve lost track of which number I’m on now – sees Daddy School back in operation again.
As well as the two primary school age girls in my charge, my wife works a demanding job in finance and is in her office upstairs all day and most evenings. My hand delivering tea, coffee and fruit is a regular in her video meetings.
We’ve got a good schedule of when we work, when we play, and when everything else gets done. I really enjoy teaching Greta and Audrey, but it’s also hard watching my girls change. The youngest is finding it tough to manage her temper, and my eldest finds social situations difficult to navigate and is getting very out of practice.
And where do I get any work done…? Well, it’s often a good couple of hours late into the evening but other days are spent sitting at the laptop with every other word is interrupted by “can you put this doll’s dress on?” or “was King Arthur real?” or the old favourite of “I’m hungry…” Luckily Gingerhead are a great bunch of people who are all in the same boat and we all understand that we’re not all working 9-5 every day of the week.
We writers are fortunate – we’re always letting our left brains have a good think while our right brains boil the kettle. It’s just that now our right brains are doing some maths tutoring, teaching phonics, making coffee, then getting dinner in the slow cooker before settling down at the blank page to start working.
But I’m also always reminded of how lucky we are. So many are in genuine hardship right now. I’ve got two girls who are fun to teach and fun to be around and I’ve got a skill which I can use in lockdown – and late at night.