Amid the discussion about whether primary schools will/should reopen next week, I would give a lot to see a member of the government acknowledge the logistical reality facing working parents of children, in an era in which working hours are longer than almost ever before.

It is not a small thing to be facing the prospect of managing a full-time workload, plus the home-schooling needs of multiple small children (who can’t just be plonked in front of the telly for weeks at a time). There are only so many hours in the week.

Why is there not better provision for parents facing this situation? Including parents in the public sector. At the moment it feels like a form of the ‘second shift’ on acid. Women - and it is mostly women - are just being expected to manage, without any alternative childcare.

I haven’t seen anyone in a position of institutional responsibility - ie. the government; my workplace - discuss just how this is supposed to work. Like, how am I supposed to do a 40++ hour job, as well as 24-hour, 7 day-per-week childcare to 3 small children? Literally, how is

this supposed to work? It just seems to be being swept under the carpet; women are just being expected to get on with it. But if we’re actually interested, as a country, in children’s mental health, there needs to be a system for freeing up working parents to properly home-school

their children. During lockdown 1, when the demands of my work ramped up, I had no choice but to leave the 8yo to her own devices for hours at a time. She became really upset & withdrawn, and becomes panicky now when anyone mentions another lockdown. I regret it hugely but I was

also put in an impossible situation. Now the same thing’s looming again, but again there’s no public political discussion about this; no schemes to make things easier on children by freeing up parents to home school. There’s just silence & it makes me feel like I’m going mad.