Parenting as God’s children in lockdown

I’m finding these days bruising. Between us, my wife and I have eight days of work to squeeze into five days each week. We are sharing the time with our children, so that one of us works in (peaceful) isolation, while the other is a combination of referee, teacher and bringer of light relief to the children.

My particular struggle is disproportionate disappointment when the children demonstrate that they are – children. That is, they are prone to accidents, likely to discourage each other and sometimes lost in bouts of frustration. In short, my children need me to parent them!

I often get to the end of the day needing to apologise to them. It’s not quite a daily routine, but it feels like it. I wake up, praying and hoping for days of love, patience and encouragement. We pray for this together. Yesterday afternoon, we celebrated together how God had answered our prayers – we had peace as we worked and peace in the local park. (I chose not to highlight what had happened in our morning!)