Mel
Mel has three children aged 17, 13 and 7. She is a full-time student at university and works as a student ambassador, representing the university at open days.
Mel works with her son at the living room table.
Mel works on her own studies at a desk in her bedroom.
“Because there’s all the distraction as well in the house. Wherever we are there are other people. So, trying to say to him, ‘look come on son you need to focus on this. Ignore everyone else’, that doesn’t sit right with me. He’s such a loving boy and he’s got a particularly strong bond with his elder sister, if she walks in the room he wants to go and give her a cuddle. So then that just breaks his concentration and I’m a mother first. It’s hard for me to say ‘no, you can’t go and cuddle your sister because you’re meant to be doing this’. So it’s difficult.
At first it was not having the space. So, I was used to my long commute every day. As frustrating as it is with the trains, I quite enjoy sticking my headphones in and just having zone out time, and I’ve not had that at all. But I’ve kind of got used to not having that now.
Like yesterday I was inside helping with a Teams English lesson, so I came inside and helped with that, and my husband sat outside on his own for an hour with his earphones in. And so I went out and said, ‘are you okay?’ And he was like, ‘yeah, I’m just enjoying some time’. So it’s that, no one’s got any time on their own any more.”