On Friday Home-schooling has been a privilege
IALWAYS thought I was an extrovert. Not in the sense that I was a show-off – though spectators of my 11-year-old self performing in the Hurst Children’s Theatre Group panto at the Athenaeum may have thought I was a precocious little brat – but more in the fact that I’ve always hated my own company and thrived in an environment surrounded by others. I loved school but I would also quite happily have been moved to a new educational establishment every term and joined a new afterschool club every week to meet a whole new bunch of classmates.
At university, I joined every club going, from trampolining to tiddlywinks, the Socialist Workers Party to the Lib Dems. And I went to every party – famously once turning up to a house party of strangers dressed as an alien on roller skates.
It goes without saying that no one else was in fancy dress.
I became a journalist because I didn’t want a routine – I wanted an adventure every day. I loved talking to strangers and finding out their stories and not knowing where I might end up when I woke up in the morning. I would volunteer for everything and turn up to the opening of an envelope to be out and about.
So I would find myself selling papers at the Newlyn Fish Festival or judging a pasty competition in a Penzance pub or turning up at a gallery launch just because I loved that crowded space.
I took a job travelling the country to different newsrooms because I loved the idea of meeting other journalists from across the UK. I was happy to live the Alan Partridge life in a Premier Inn – it was a good excuse to go to a pub on my own and start a conversation at random.
I think my daughter was a few hours old when I took her to her first baby group as a way of meeting other mums. (It was called Breast Friends, much to my husband’s amusement. I’d like to think it made her adaptable. To me, a weekend without a social engagement was a wasted weekend. I was the opposite of homely. My house was a mess because I was never there to clean it up. So when lockdown first happened, I thought I’d hate it. Twenty three hours a day in the house, not seeing another soul but my husband, two children and cat and a succession of disembodied heads through a computer screen. The drudgery of
routine. The pressure of my surrounding clutter. But since the schools were first shut down in March, I’ve seen homeschooling as a great privilege. It’s the chance I never had to spend more time with my girls. And I’ve unleashed my inner school ma’am on them to varying degrees of success. And though my house might still be a mess, it’s a world away from where it was a year ago. I’m still pretty lacking in the day to day chores, but if there’s a major project to be had, like clearing out the box room or building furniture or creating a school room, I love it.
And without even realising it was happening, I’ve found myself creating a routine. It started with an early morning swim. It’s become a full morning run then dip in the Dart, back for a shower, breakfast and a couple of hours of homeschool before work.
After a day sitting at the computer, I’m quite happy to spend every evening watching Schitts Creek with my husband and a glass of red wine.
So it turns out that I might not be an extrovert after all. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be organising the biggest party ever once this is all over.
But the next day, I might just curl up at home with a good book and rediscover the joy of being at home.