Establishing the new normal

Each day this week, here in the UK, the restrictions on what we can and can't do get tighter as the government seeks to slow the rate of spread of the Coronavirus. Yesterday schools closed for the majority of pupils and for many in Years 6, 11 and 13 they treated yesterday as their last day at their current school. We certainly had a very upset Year 6 this week as she realised all those things that she was going to miss out on in the summer term - SATs breakfasts, talent shows, school production, leavers' assembly, activities week...

We are entering uncharted territory in the coming weeks and months - normal life is not going to be possible. The expectation is that for the majority of people most of their time is going to be spent at home, for days, for weeks, for months. And potentially this has a massive impact on wellbeing and mental health.

But there are many ways we can tackle this issue. Within the church, it has been great this week to see people making the effort to keep in touch. 

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

Some are embracing modern technology for the first time and finding that they can use WhatsApp or FaceTime after all. Our homegroup successfully used Google Meets to meet virtually on Thursday. And it has been good to see that those who only have a phone have not been left out and people are calling them for a chat.

If we were only facing a week of living at home it would be easy to treat it as a holiday. It would be easy to laze around in front of the TV, read a book, play a few games, surf the net and eat pizza. But we're not facing just a week of this. There is no definite end in sight. Certainly, schools seem to have written off the whole of the summer term.

And therefore I think it is important for all of us to create our own structures for our days. We're going to be homeschooling three children across the primary and secondary range so that's going to be significantly different to normal. 

Others, who are retired, or those who already homeschool, for example, will have already created structures, but often these still involve points in the week or the day where they go out to do something. Whether it be church, or Oasis Tea, or Friendship Group, or wine club, or the village cinema, or coffee at the local garden centre or fish & chips on Friday lunchtime - all of that structure has now gone.

Personally, we're taking this weekend easy. Just to be kind to ourselves. But from Monday we're going to start to build a new normal. We're not sure what that's going to look like yet, and as events change, we will almost certainly have to be flexible. But here are a few ideas.

Eating together as a family - round the table at fixed times (including breakfast).

Photo by Regular Man on Unsplash

Talking of eating - meals need to be prepared - turn that into an activity too.

Up and dressed by a fixed time - no slumming it in your PJs all day long!

Schools are supposed to hold an assembly, an act of worship, each day. Most don't. But we can. There are loads of resources for individuals and families that can help us to start the day with 'an act of worship' or a family devotional time. 

Work / school work - whether you're working from home or your children are, set times in the day when that is going to happen. If you're fortunate enough to have dedicated space where that can happen that's great, but even working at the table rather than sat on the sofa with your laptop can help to separate the downtime from the work time.

Talking of downtime - factor that in too - time for different members of the family to go off and do their own thing.

Exercise. At the moment in the UK we're still able to exercise outside as long as you don't come within 2m of someone. We're fortunate to live somewhere where that is quite easy. I'm still able to get out and run and as a family we can get out for walks - schedule them into the plan.

I live in quite a crafty household and hobbies such as knitting, crochet, paper crafts can easily be built into the daily routine. Others will have different hobbies and passions that can also be easily accommodated indoors - music practise for example. Whilst classes and lessons are clearly not happening at the moment - have a look online and see what you can find.

But that's not going to be possible for everyone. Archery, football and squash are three pastimes that won't be happening in this household anytime soon. So what about trying something new, or resurrecting something that has been neglected in recent years? I'm going to wait and see how the next few weeks pan out in terms of workload but I might be tempted to take up learning the guitar again - in a structured way, built into a weekly plan.

And then there are all the Holy Habits that we've been looking at in church since January 2019. Is this the opportunity to kick start that Bible in a Year reading programme, or to spend a bit more time in prayer?

I expect things are going to continue to change rapidly over the coming days and weeks and therefore, whatever we do, we're going to need to be flexible and adaptable. We're also probably in for the long haul, so start slowly and build up. To use a running analogy - it's going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

Share your ideas below in the comments section below (note that comments don't appear immediately - they have to be moderated first).