The diary of Dad

I’m not sure who created this idea or where it come from but I love it. A simple concept among UK bloggers to share a little happiness in some pretty tough times for us all.

The concept is simple. To write a post all about your isolation silver linings and then to tag a few of your favourite bloggers to do the same. I’m honoured to have been asked by the Laura from the fantastic www.loopyloulaura.com to add a post so here it is!

This is actually a really simple topic for me to write about. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am really enjoying isolation. Today is a shining example of exactly why I am loving it so much.

It’s Easter Sunday, meaning that I should be flying around on one of the busiest days of the year at work. My wife works for the same business so we would be both spending half a day each slaving away and playing single parent with the boy for the other half. Instead, we are spending the day as a family.

We’ve been busy with a few crafts for the day. We’ve decorated eggs and made our own easter basket for Robbie. After his afternoon nap today he woke to find the house filled with small chocolate eggs hidden all around the house and in his favourite toys. We then headed to the garden where he found even more. The bunny has been very busy today.

We’ve laughed, we’ve played and we are loving the spending the holiday together rather than trying to juggle work and parenting.

Spending time with Robbie at this stage of his life is so much fun and the difference is incredible. My usual routine of coming home at around 5PM, doing his dinner and then into the dreaded bedtime routine tends to miss out of the best things about a toddler.

We are out in the garden every day now. I’m slowly teaching him to kick a ball rather than pick it up, all great footballers have to start somewhere. I’ll spend at least 10 minutes each day just running, chasing my mini athlete from room to room until I can’t run anymore (I’m not the fittest.) There is time to look through books and practice counting and learning his alphabet and no day is complete without a dance with Daddy!

To cut a long story very short, Robbie is a small bundle of joy and energy. Not many parents will have the luxury of spending every minute at home with their child at such a great time and his infectious laughter takes away any worries I could have about the outside world right now.

Aside from the extra time with my little man, I’ve taken the chance to use the time productively and made a few changes for the better. I’ve cut down my huge energy drink addiction since I really don’t need the buzz when relaxing at home and have replaced it with healthy smoothies and drinking far more water.

I also see a lot of jokes and comments about us all putting on huge amounts of weight from all the extra sofa time. This is fine by me since I’m built like stick and a little chub wouldn’t hurt. I may even stop being compared to Peter Crouch if this goes on much longer! On a serious note though, I have this build due to regularly skipping meals and once again this isolation period has helped me to maintain a far healthier diet.

I picked a great time to start writing this blog as it has certainly kept me occupied throughout isolation. This site has only been alive for two months and the truth is that there is so much to do when trying to build any kind of readership. When I first started I read all I could on how to get views and soon realised I had nowhere near the amount of time required to make it successful.

This break from life has enabled me to get a few bits and pieces done on here and around social media that I would simply not have found time for and I have managed to grow far quicker than I could ever have wished for.

Of course it is not all good news. We miss our friends and family dearly but have found new ways to adapt. Although we obviously can not see them in person, we now talk to family everyday through video calls so are in fact seeing them far more than we ever had before.

Sarah in particular spends nearly her whole evening on video chats with close friends and relatives that she may only have seen once a month before this began.

I realise that I am extremely lucky and I am so grateful to have a wonderful wife and fantastic little man to spend the time with. Others are not so fortunate but it is now more important than ever to look for your own silver linings from this. The world has ground to a halt but we can find ways to pass the time and tick a few things of the list of jobs we have never got around to. You can also find new and fun ways to kids entertained.

So let’s keep the joy going. I’ll tag a few of my favourite bloggers and look forward to seeing all the happy moments that have come from their time in isolation too.

I am nominating Kirsty from kirstyfrancewrites.co.uk, Lisa from lisavalentineblog.com and James from mydreamality.com to continue the happy vibes, thanks everyone!