For years I have been fascinated by the role of women in war time. I’ve watched so many different TV dramas and read loads of books set during the Second World War and it’s always been the women in these that have captivated me. It could have been the female code breakers at Bletchley, the Land Girls or even WI members busy making jam but I’ve always wondered about their lives. Balancing their war time responsibilities with still running homes and families whilst so many men went away to fight.
One particular favourite from the time was *Nella Last’s Diaries which she wrote as part of the Mass Observation Project. These went on to lead to the drama *Housewife 49, starring the late Victoria Wood.
The thing is the now we are facing my generation’s equivalent of WW2. At least I hope this is going to be my generation’s only experience of something like this!
The Coronavirus, or COVID -19 to give it its formal title, is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. A pandemic. Just giving it that title makes me shudder a little. Day to day life is changing in a way that I never imagined. The projects for our long term future here in the UK are also changing. I’m scared, confused, and have a million and one questions. As I’m sure do so many others. I’m not the only woman in this position, but I think that it is worth recording what is happening. I know the news reports will live on and we’ll all be able to do searches on BBC News archives in years to come, but I’m keen that we also keep track of what day to day life is like for a normal (well – nearly normal) family living here in 2020.
So, that’s what I aim to do. Aspire to be 2020’s Nella Last and keep track of living through this Corona Pandemic.
This is going to be the story of five of us. Myself, a 41 year old mum of three. I hold an engineering degree, and previously worked as a civil servant and technical project manager before spending the last ten years juggling motherhood with blogging and social media work (before “influencers” became a thing) to help pay the bills. I live in Bedfordshire with my husband B (a field service engineer in the medical laboratory industry) and our 16 month old daughter K. Also living with us are my children from my first marriage. Nine year old Little Miss C and 7 year old Master C. They normally spend half their time living with their Dad, who happens to work in head office for a large supermarket chain, but as he comes under one of the “vulnerable” categories the kids are staying with me whilst he “socially isolates”. It seemed to be the sensible thing to do whilst the kids were seeing friends and staff at school every day. It’s wonderful having them here all the time, but there’s no denying it is going to have logistical implications aplenty. Especially with all the lifestyle changes on the horizon.
I’ve included some affiliate links in this post. In reality they’re my only chance of making some money over the next few months. For the sake of transparency all links marked * are affiliate links and if you click on them and buy something it will cost you no more, but I will receive a small (very small) amount of commission. In these troubled times it’s possibly only enough to buy a few sheets of loo roll. It’s appreciated though!
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