How to stop your kids driving you mad in lockdown – 21st to 25th April 2020

This 2020 Coronavirus lockdown is really tough for everyone, restricting us to our homes, limiting us to accessing nature in our gardens or during walks. For many people, we have a garden we can sit in and leafy roads we can walk along whilst taking our daily one hour allowance of freedom.

Visible Minority Ethnic people living in the inner city have told me that they can not go out for walks because the pavements are too narrow and people are not social distancing, just bumping into one another as they walk past.

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig on a Lockdown Walk Copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig with Chris Packham on Colledge Green, Bristol Copyright Mya-Rose Craig

However, for many people, life under lockdown is even more difficult. Now think about children living in deprivation in our inner cities, especially those who are Visible Minority Ethnic (VME).  Parents waiting for universal credit to come through so children living off ‘free school meal’ food hampers.

At home with a number of siblings in overcrowded homes, with no space for any kind of quiet contemplation or even just your own space. Parents without the skills to home school, no computers, no printers, no paper, no paint, no felt tips or crayons.  No garden, concreted drive at the front of the house, broken washing machines left on the pavements, only built up roads to walk along and now banned from entering parks. It is really important for everyone especially primary age children to get outside daily, to take in the air, watch the clouds,  to absorb nature – the trees, grass and flowers. As humans were are part of nature and have developed to live as part of it. It is really important for your physical and mental health to relax, calm and reduce anxiety & fears and that is exactly what connecting with nature helps us do. There are ways that you and your children can connect with nature, in any small green space, balcony or even out of the window.

Day Twenty-one – 21st April 2020
For day twenty-one, do you wake up early? Get up at 6.00 am and enjoy the dawn chorus from an open window. Without cars and planes, the birds are much louder than usual, will be worth every minute.
Watch the birds gathering nest materials, building and then flying in and out with food for the young.

Day Twenty-two – 22nd April 2020
For day twenty-one, try looking through your window again but not just for 10 minutes but for a few hours. Move furniture around if you need to so that you can ideally see some treetops as well as the sky. A report from care homes and hospitals found that people who had a view of nature had better health outcomes comparing those with a blocked up view.

Once you have found a view, even if it is just up at the clouds with the occasional bird, keep glancing at it through a morning or afternoon and notice how it feels. Notice the changes and absorb what is before you.

Day Twenty-three – 23rd April 2020
For day twenty-three, try looking through your window again but not just for 10 minutes but for a few hours. Move furniture around if you need to so that you can ideally see some treetops as well as the sky. A report from care homes and hospitals have found that those people who had a view of nature had better health outcomes compared with those with a blocked up view.

Once you have found a view, even if it is just up at the clouds with the occasional bird, keep glancing at it through the day and notice how it feels. Notice the changes and absorb what is before you.

Day Twenty-four – 24th April 2020
For day twenty-four,  Do you wake up early? Get up at 6.00 am and enjoy the dawn chorus from an open window. Without cars and planes, the birds are much louder than usual and it will be worth every minute. Watch the birds gathering nest materials and building their nests and then flying in and out with food for young or the insects looking for nectar.

Day Twenty-five – 25th April 2020
For day twenty-five, if you are Muslim, fasting for Ramadan and waking up pre-dawn to eat your Sehri (breakfast) try looking through your window or listen for the dawn chorus from an open window. Without cars and planes, the birds are much louder than usual and it will be worth every minute even at that early time. Maybe listen from your bed as you are falling back asleep.