Parenting columnist Ruth Davies says women would have made a better job of taking care of the UK this year

Here we are again in the thick of lockdown albeit this time with a few heads up we didn’t have before. The first time going in blind was perhaps the hardest thing for me as a parent and I spent the beginning week feeling discombobulated and drifting before I reached my safe equilibrium to make the best of it while enjoying time with my family.

The children in my household were largely unaffected as we made their time fun and spent a goodly portion not focusing on the tricky things like school or fear but reminding ourselves how lucky we were to be together without any health concerns.

We kept them in contact with their friends on social media or through gaming and family time on Zoom with quizzes and catch ups was always on our daily agenda along with exercise. It was tough but this time needn’t be anywhere near as hard!

We now have the gift of knowledge and hindsight. Not only do we know what worked well and what didn’t the last time but the rules are less stringent accompanying new information about the virus.

We can still have my mum in our bubble and are allowed to meet with one friend for a walk for instance.

Pre-school children aren’t included in the numbers when it comes to that one friend either, so mums won’t be as isolated as they have been in the past and I think that’s the key message we have to remember here because the isolation, not just for mums but for everyone, was a major dictating factor in suffering with ill mental health.

The government, in my view, made grave mistakes throughout this pandemic what with the PM missing FIVE crucial Cobra meetings, coming to the party late, ignoring EU offers of PPE, purchasing useless PPE, the Cummings debacle of flouting the rules and many, many more things besides so I find it hard to trust a party who I never feel have my best interests at heart. But I do, trust me. And though this second wave of lockdown is also a late entry when the science has told us we need to do something for weeks, I know we can do it.

In fact, if mums had been in charge in the first place we’d probably have it all in hand and running like clockwork as we speak.

Sending kids back to uni rather than making an agreement with landlords because it’s “better for the economy” and encouraging us to keep going to the pub was, to parents everywhere, obviously a bad move.

These adult kids have added to the numbers of Covid cases in their droves as at their age they think they’ll live forever and are so selfishly absorbed they don’t see the impact of their own behaviour on others. Large families could, and would, have implemented social distancing while meeting up with grandparents but were penalised while students were shipped off to new cities (like Norwich with our previously low numbers) to create party central… Look at the hot spots, especially in Norfolk, and you‘ll see the correlation between the students and the figures.

Mums wouldn’t have stood for it any more than they’d have been late for a press conference (with, or without their children in tow)!

The cabinet is made up largely of public school educated bumbling old boys who can’t even turn up on time- probably too busy eating tax payer subbed meals in parliament restaurant discussing how underprivileged children brought it upon themselves simply by being born. Look at New Zealand, read up about their PM Jacinda Ardern. See how differently their country has and is handling things. Well folks, we have Jacinda Arderns in this country too, we just need to remember to vote them in!

There are lots of things to remember to get us through in the present here and now too. Keep to your heart that children are unlikely to get Covid badly or become super spreaders so school is very much in session (thank goodness because pregnancy means I can’t even hit the mother’s ruin) and the supply chain have learned we need lots of toilet roll so we are unlikely to run out.

And most definitely don’t forget that Boris Johnson pulled the potential Christmas card out of his hat simply to spin doctor his way out of his own bad behaviour. He wants us to skim past all the rubbish and remember that HE and HE alone promised us turkey with granny if we behave… Come on, we’re not that dim are we?!

It’ll be great to see our wider family for festive lunch (knowing the PM probably a good couple of weeks before hand just so we can prop up the bar and dart a bit of money injection that way too) but mums would have ensured that was 100% on track from the off.

Jacinda Arderns are everywhere, Boris Johnsons don’t have to be. Just saying.

Ruth Davies has a parenting blog: www.rocknrollerbaby.co.uk