2020 has been a crazy year so far! Of course Covid-19 has turned our lives inside out plus I had my second baby back in March, on my birthday, two weeks before we went into full lockdown in the UK. I was in the whirlwind of just having given birth (which I will talk more about in a separate blog), having a newborn and a killer virus was spreading across the world. This could go in any direction.
We don’t live close to any family, and by that I mean we don’t have family “just round the corner”. Our nearest relatives live min 45minutes away. So as we were not allowed to travel, we didn’t see anyone for 12 weeks. In our house, it is myself,my husband, our two daughters, a dog and a rabbit. Under “normal conditions” we see family most weekends and spend a lot of time travelling. And thus, lockdown was a blessing in disguise. I could savour those newborn hazy days completely. I had nowhere to go and no pressures of “having to see people”. Don’t get me wrong, I was sad that no one could cuddle this gorgeous girl but I could be really selfish and have her all to myself.
My husband worked from home (still does now actually), and I wasn’t left to look after a toddler and a newborn 2 weeks after giving birth. That’s right, paternity leave is atrocious. 2 weeks at basic pay is all the dad’s get, which I think is so unfair. Not only are you, the mum, nowhere near healed from the birth (whichever way baby arrived) but dads are also sleep deprived and exhausted. Plus, when a new baby arrives it hits dads differently – mums are preparing for this new arrival for 9 months, all your hormones make it so but dad’s have none of that. This is a really stressful time for them too. I believe dads should get minimum 6 weeks paternity at full pay!
So my husband working from home meant he helped out a lot, doing all the household chores, holding the baby or quickly running our toddler to the loo. As a family we got a whole lot of extra time together, as he was there for all 3 meals of the day and when he finished work, he had time to play with our toddler, rather than spending over an hour travelling back from work.
I have loved the time lockdown gave us. Time as a family, time at home, time to get out in nature, time to read, time to craft. Time to learn something new. Time. Finally, I had time to spend on my business.
Once I got used to having a newborn and our new family routine, I got on with making and creating. I found, on days I crocheted or sewed, I felt so much better mentally. I felt I had something for me, rather than for my children or my husband. I realised it is so important to invest in yourself so that you can be the best version of yourself for other people. On days I didn’t craft, I would definitely be more snappy and struggle to keep calm and enjoy my children.
I loved building my craft business up, and sharing more of what I was about on social media. However, this did also make me realise that I had no idea how to use social media to it’s full potential for my businesss. I learnt a lot and I think I have improved, but it is ever-changing and I still have so much more to figure out!
The summer has been great, and I definitely tried to make the most of it by visiting family, and trips to the beach. This time also made me realise that I was spending way too much time scrolling through Instagram and Facebook “for my business”. This time scrolling was distracting me from my family and wasn’t making me feel good about myself. So I went on a social media detox. In my next post I will talk about the importance of boundaries with our social media!
As I get ready to publish this post, we are heading back into level 4 of lockdown here in England as case numbers rise. The next 6 months are going to be so different yet again to what we expected. It will be really important again to see the positives and use this time wisely. Make positive changes for ourselves, our families and the world around us.
Hoopoe Crafts 