The COVID-19 pandemic has placed extrastresses and strains on all of us, and for working Mums and Dads it hasintroduced a whole new raft of parental guilts we didn’t even know existedbefore. As if we needed even more!!

Did your sudden household imprisonmenttransform your regular ‘not-seeing-enough-of-your-children’ guilt into aplethora of brand new worries and concerns? It certainly did for our workingMums at RMS. But we think it’s time to celebrate everything that us resilientworking parents have achieved in these extraordinary, challenging times. We arehere to tell you that however you have gotten through these past few months ofunprecedented family stresses and demands, as long as you’re all still smilingand in one piece, you have done a marvelous job! So choose your poison andlet’s all pour ourselves a large Friday drink and reflect on how far we’vecome.

As a workforce, as a nation, as a planet,we have never seen anything like this lockdown before. Thanks Gina Ford andPhilippa Perry, but we might as well tear up the parenting manuals and startagain. When has it ever been expected that we do a full day's work, a fullday’s childcare and a full day’s homeschooling all at once? If you saw all thaton a job spec, you’d run a mile! Let’s not forget there was no chance of anyadditional support or distractions back there either: no ballet classes,swimming sessions, sports practice, babysitters, play dates - you couldn’t evenbribe them with the promise of a McDonalds or take them out to slurp milkshakesin a cafe for half an hour. And all this with the constant threat of a globalmedical pandemic looming at all times, just the other side of your bolted frontdoor. Seriously, working parents, we were up against it!

From chatting to friends with children overthe last few months the same parental worries keep surfacing about this periodof time: guilt over the amount of screen time that has been relied on; guiltover your rage when your toddler burst in on your client zoom meeting; guilt overbeing your child’s sole playmate for months on end; guilt over all the cookiesand cakes you’ve deployed to keep them quiet; guilt over putting them to bed anhour early just to have some quiet time; guilt over actually missing yourcommute and the hours you used to spend out of the house, away from it all. Thelist is endless.

Perhaps you started the lockdown withromantic ideals of nightly family suppers, perfectly sharing childcare withyour other half, serving up home cooked recipes lovingly prepared throughoutthe day. Have you, like us, ended up ordering nightly Dominos, which the kidsconsume in front of the TV while you attempt to clear your inbox before thenext day? Well at least we’re all fed!

You might have always fancied yourself asan inspiring teacher and jumped at the chance to educate your child startingoff with Joe Wicks to get you going followed by arts and crafts inspired byPinterest, yoga sessions in the sitting room, science experiments in thekitchen, growing vegetables in window pots, producing fresh bread and cakeswith your future star bakers or giving the von Trapps a run for their moneywith your impromptu family jamming sessions. Did Disney Plus and the PS4 proveto be an easier daily option in the end? Many of us will never be more gratefulfor schools reopening; thank the lord for qualified teachers!

Working parents, we applaud yourresilience, your juggling of conflicting demands, your commitment to your job,your care of your family and, most of all, your incredible survival instincts!I think we’ve earned that Friday toast, don’t you?

We would love to hear your tips and trickson entertaining, educating and feeding your kids whilst wearing all your otherhats through lockdown. Or maybe you're on old hand and nothing's reallychanged?

Do get in touch with us oninfo@rmsrecruitment.com titled "Raising a Toast" with your beststories good or bad!