Lockdown memories. I wanted to write up my ‘final instalment’ as things start to very slowly return to some kind of normal – and I’m not feeling so ‘locked up’. We can go to the beach and even meet in small bubbles now. Schools and nurseries have re-opened and the overwhelming ‘hostage’ feeling has disappeared.

Lockdown was a time I initially really, really struggled with. I hated being locked in, a literal prisoner of my own home. Losing my freedom, not being able to quickly pop anywhere (those who know me, know how I love to pop to places), not going to any places we usually would, or just being able to see our favourite people.

And the hardest part for me was being with the kids 24/7. It was relentless and completely overwhelming.

But as the weeks have gone on, it has got easier. And I found myself starting to enjoy it. I’ve chilled out, I’ve relaxed more, found a new schedule which doesn’t involve dashing everywhere like a mad woman, and usually arriving late, and we’ve explored places we would never had before this. I am now amazed by the beauty of nature. It’s always been there, I just never took any notice of it. Which is quite sad to realise.
The kids even started to not irritate me every single second. So that’s a win.
So, what I’m trying to say is that even though those early days felt longs and at times, utterly unbearable, I want to remember this time as a time that we lived history, a time that we will (hopefully) never get to experience again.

A time where the world stood still and made us all slow down and reset.

A time where offices closed, schools shut for the foreseeable, Year 6 students got a free pass from having to sit GCSE’s but also missed their prom and saying goodbye to their friends, parents learnt how to juggle homeschooling whilst working from home and Joe Wicks became the Nations Favourite PE teacher (he even drafted in his wife Rosie for a couple of days…)
A time where community spirit was sky high, where we chalked rainbows and hung flags, where we smiled and said hello to strangers as we dodged them on paths, in woods and during the weekly shop. When households went out en masse on Thursday evenings banging pots and pans, when supermarket workers and bin men were heralded as key worker champions (and rightly so!) and when an old guy walked laps of his garden and raised over £32m for the NHS (We salute you Captain Tom)
A time where we’ve never been so grateful for technology; keeping us up to date with family and friends, giving us a new version of a Friday night in-in (Zoom quiz anyone?), where teachers have sent and marked school work, where middle age parents have become Tik Tok heroes and where young children have been allowed more than the average YouTube time…
And the time that the sun shone almost every day. A time where this mama drank too much gin and ate too many biscuits.
So we had some photos taken by Stephanie Atkins Photography to remember it all.
Our lockdown memories of when the world stood still.