Hannah Bushell – Legal Counsel (and mum of two)
It’s Tuesday (I think). It’s 8.45am. I’m on a video call with my boss discussing some very important and very serious contracts, when suddenly a blur of purple chiffon runs into the room wearing a tutu demanding I put her hair in a bun for ballet. Oops, sorry about that…
This is life now we’re all locked in our houses, right? Trying to work from home and look after a one-year-old and a four-year-old is not easy. It’s tricky navigating this new “normal”. Perils so far have included:
- Kids dramatically announcing themselves on video calls to colleagues and clients alike, offering up important information like, “MUMMY I JUST FED THE HAMSTER MY UNICORN PLAY DOH”.
- The baby stealing my green highlighter pen and using it to colour his entire face and body so he now resembles Yoda.
- Me getting more and more irate because my husband is taking up all the room in MY home office, including spilling juice all over my notes which are now drying on the radiator like washing.
- And my personal favourite… the baby eating the majority of a chilli plant (soil included) and being hung upside down in the sink under a cold tap while I’m prattling away to our Italian office about a website change.
The juggle is real. Alcohol intakes have doubled, working days are now spread in two hour chunks over 16 hours instead of a condensed eight, and I don’t think I’ve brushed my hair since Boris said I had to stay at home until 2021.
We’re well set up for home working at names.co.uk so I’m used to the odd video call and angling my laptop so I don’t look like a potato, but having to share a tea round with a lawyer (yes there are two of us in this house) who drinks 80 cups of tea a day, a four-year-old who is addicted to squash and a baby who keeps trying to drink toilet water is not as relaxing as chatting over the coffee machine at work. Oh how I miss my office!
However, it’s not all bad I suppose. We are home for dinner as a family, my work attire has expanded (as has my waist line probably) to include joggers and slippers and we have spent our lunch break outside in the fresh air, undertaking the government mandated exercise each day. So maybe some good will come of all of this.
Now, enough of that. It’s already 5pm which means it’s time to order something at the bar (my kitchen) and take it to the terrace (my overgrown patio). I’ll keep using my imagination….
