‘Over-reaction’ guilt is uncomfortable, but we must follow advice

After his child developed a persistent cough, Courier reporter Peter John Meiklem has retreated into self-isolation. He will regularly share his perspective on the new working world

I feel guilty. There’s no getting away from it.

The family and I have gone into lockdown over nothing more than a toddler’s persistent cough.

Anyone with a wee one will tell you, they’re always snotty-nosed and spluttering over something, but under the new rules, it is family isolation for us and we’re in it for the fortnight.

Toddler daughter welcomed the news by trashing the couch and a collection of rare first-edition books I was given on my 21st birthday.

Home-working and childcare are uneasy bedfellows and I’d just taken my

“What will hopefully be the saving of many of us could be the ruin of some, and you just hope the help and support announced for these families will be enough

eye off my second favourite pen for a second, when I noticed the eerie quiet.

A quick trip to the living room confirmed she’d managed a two-yearold’s interpretation of a Jackson Pollock on the white couch covers and added rare novel dust jacket confetti for good measure.

That’ll teach me to pay attention. Work goes on, bringing with it some genuine perspective. I spent the afternoon on the telephone interviewing small business owners who are already staring into the financial abyss.

Some had shut already, others were doing what they could to hold on, but the picture was uniformly bleak.

In reporting, a bit of hyperbole can be a common stock and trade, but there didn’t seem any way to overstate the seriousness of what social distancing and social isolation meant for these family businesses.

What will hopefully be the saving of many of us could be the ruin of some, and you just hope the help and support announced for these families will be enough.

Because if toddler daughter continues in her current form, a quiet pint down the pub will – one day again, I’m sure – feel like total salvation.

Picture: Mhairi Edwards. Reporter Peter John is learning about the challenges of home-working.