Staying at home, saving lives

“I really like being at home with the girls, and I knowthis is going to sound really bizarre, but I love home schooling,” says Sheena, 37.

“Both girls have Zoom at 10am, so when they’re doing that, I’ll be doing mywork. They have their designated study areas and I encourage them to work independently, but I make sure I’m present so if they need me, they can come and get me.”

Sheena, who’s written a book, Perfectly Imperfect Mum, believes that it’s important for mothers to take the pressure off themselves.

“Seeing people making perfect meals on Instagram can make us feel guilty and start judging ourselves,” she says. “As long as we try our best, that should be good enough. If youwantto have beans on toast or chips, that’s OK.”

What’s really helping Sheena feel calm during lockdown is practising mindfulness. “Whether we’re eating meals, brushing our teeth, looking at our phones and watching TV, we’re alwaysmulti-tasking,” she says.

“So we started practising mindfulness as a family and creating our own little videos so that other children could benefit. We go on little mindfulness walks, becoming more aware of oursurroundings.

“A simple technique is when we’re eating at home, we feel grateful for the food and then talk about where it came from. You start appreciating food you’re eating and feel fuller, rather than always thinking, ‘What can I eat next?’”

As an active family who love to travel, the Tanna-Shahs have had to get creativeduring their time at home – and they’ve found themselves trying activities they’d never have imagined doing.

“None of us are dancers at all, but we thought, ‘What can we do to make things more fun?’ so we filmed ourselves doing a dance to Superheroes by The Script and shared it online,” says Sheena. “Before lockdown, I would have never dreamt we’d do anything like that!

“My daughter loves Enid Blyton books, so we did a midnight feast outdoors and looked at shooting stars – itwasn’t something we’d normally dream of doing. And we went to Woburn Park at 4am last summer to watch the sunrise. We’re living in the moment, and notworrying about what everyone else is doing.”

Although getting out in the fresh air