Hannah Lamprell 4.6.2020 St Michaels, Kent
It is so impossible and unmanageable sometimes that I zone out and think I must write down everything I have done in the last hour……..
- Made three different breakfasts and cleared them up again (feeding Eddie is like feeding a food blender with the lid off, I am never sure how much he has actually eaten)…..
- Tidied two little children’s bedrooms……resembling a robbery
- Cleaned baby poo off the stairs because Ed has removed his nappy and scooted down them.
- Bathed said child from above
- Put the washing on
- Emptied the dishwasher
- Removed rock from child’s mouth….he didn’t give it up willingly
- Brushed teeth x3
- Got them changed (eventually)
- Got Ed changed again within half an hour……he found a bucket of water outside.
- Brushed the wild birds nest on B’s head
9am-10am yesterday
I run my business now single handedly. There are emails to send, wedding clients to call, bookings to make and shoots to plan. That is without editing the images and film!
To say I love my business is a massive understatement, I have built it from scratch. From never having done anything business related to running my own in six years. It has been a huge learning curve and I have put god knows how many hours in to everything. But you know what, it has payed off. That is a huge achievement and one I want my kids to see and understand. Hopefully giving them that entrepreneurial edge I obtained from my parents.
I had Isabelle in 2016, she was a really easy baby and I would take her to shoots strapped to my chest, or left to it playing on a mat on the ground with a few toys. To this day she is an absolute dream. Typical first child lulling me in to a false sense of security…….
Then came Eddie. Colic ridden, hungry, adorable little chunk of a boy! What a boy…… He is my temperamental little bundle of love. The polar opposite to Isabelle. I wouldn’t dream of taking him to a shoot ever. He needs constant attention and monitoring. If there is a hole, he will fall down it, something dangerous left out, he will find it. Proper boy!
Before Corona I managed working and mumming pretty well. They both went to nursery three days a week. My parents had them loads and I had a good amount of time to do what I needed to do.
Then Corona. With my husband being a key worker doing night and day shifts on the trains, as well as an on call Fireman when he is home, it is mostly just me and the kids. Before Corona the thought of spending a whole day at home without taking them somewhere to entertain them was hell. Now we have done it for three months.
Our typical day now starts with Rio and breakfast on the sofa anywhere between 5,6,7,8,or 9am. Depending how late they gave in and went to sleep! Then, they play whilst I start work. Emails, checking overnight workshop orders, answering messages and enquiries that have come in since last night when I finally signed off.
Now when I say play…….I mean play. Their imaginations this lockdown have increased tenfold. Which I am so pleased with. They have learnt to entertain themselves TOGETHER. This has been a massive bonus. Before, they didn’t even tolerate each other, let alone play together! So out comes the craft draws, the dog food becomes dinosaur meat, the coffee table gets upturned to become a jail. You get the picture. After about an hour of work I will go and discover what they have been up too (don’t worry my home is tiny so I can hear them the whole time!)
The clean up begins. Ed then goes for a nap and I finally get a chance to shower. Isabelle gets her Ipad and quite happily chills whilst I sort the house out (see, dream child).
Ed wakes up 1,2,3 hours later and I get them both changed……it’s lunch time by now so we go and raid the kitchen together. We have eaten a LOT of pancakes this lockdown. They work for breakfast, lunch and dinner……
Then I try to drag them out for a walk with the dogs, go play in their grandparents garden (now lockdown has eased), Pick fruit at a local farm or go to the beach. ANYTHING to break the day up and get them out. Or the morning house trashing ritual begins again…….
Then it is dinner, bath and bed! Once they are asleep, the house cleaned up again, Chris returns home from work and my working day resumes. Until the early hours most nights.
Lockdown has definitely had it’s hard moments, where I have wanted to run away and lock myself in the shed (that we don’t own). But mostly it has been amazing. I will never again get this 1-2-1 time with my kids where we don’t have to rush from class to shoot to nursery. It has been a real eye opener and I have made some massive changes to how things will be going forwards.
I am really impressed if you read all of that…….let me know if you did and enjoyed this little glimpse in to our day to day. I think it is probably very similar to lots of you.
Hannah x
Also, totally dreading September when Isabelle goes to big school. HOW I am going to nail that school run routine I do not know. Wish us luck!
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