As a single mum, I just can’t buy food
SINGLE parents such as me are the forgotten demographic in this pandemic. I have a full-time job as a head of marketing and am working from home while also being the sole carer of my nine-year-old son Henry and four-year-old daughter Evelyn. We don’t have family or friends nearby, and with school and the office closed we are isolated. There is rightly help for the vulnerable from volunteers, shops and the Government, but seemingly not for sole parents. We are doing everything we can to stay at home and only venture out when it is absolutely essential. In the past month, the children have been taught to stay at least two metres away from other people and even my four-year-old moves automatically to the far edge of the path. Before we leave the house for our daily exercise, I set the ground rules: ‘Stay next to Mummy, but let me go ahead to see if people are coming. If anyone comes towards us, stop and make sure we are as far away as possible. Try not to touch anything. Wash our hands as soon as we are home.’ This has become a ritual for them. I can’t leave my young children at home by themselves so have to take them with me when I go shopping for essentials. I don’t want to take them to an enclosed space where they could be exposed to the virus, but I have no choice. I received disgusted looks from other shoppers and was made to feel like a neglectful parent when I took them into one store. The supermarkets deem my children as vulnerable but, in a wholly new way, are exposing them to more frightening prospects than just the virus. Stores are doing an incredible job in enforcing self-distancing measures, but Asda has decided only one shopper can enter the supermarket at a time; single parents are being advised to leave their children outside with a member of staff. My children have been raised to be cautious of strangers, so this is confusing for them. I’ve heard of some parents leaving their children in a locked car while they go to the supermarket. Before coronavirus, such a thing would have been unthinkable. After a distressing time dragging my children to various supermarket car parks to assess the risk, we left with nothing. I went online in the vain hope there may be an available slot in two weeks’ time, but deliveries were fully booked for four weeks ahead. So for dinner this week, I served the children grilled chicken breasts and potatoes, while I had Pringles.
GABRIELLA FRYER, Ledbury, Herefordshire.