Find out how lockdown affected local residents in Coventry - Sam's story

Sam is a member of the Healthwatch team and is currently working from home with her husband and daughter.

The past ten weeks have definitely had some major highs and lows for me personally.  At first it was a struggle to get ourselves into a good routine balancing work and school work whilst making sure we were still having family time.  I always felt guilty that I was spending too much time supporting my daughter with school work and not enough time with work and vice versa. We made sure we got up at the same time as if we were leaving for work and school, had breakfast together and got dressed. It made us feel like everything was ‘normal’ – this helped us settle into our new routine. I am lucky that I have a job which has allowed me to be a bit more flexible with my hours.

Even though this has been hard we have been able to make so many happy memories together. I find that as a family we have made more of an effort to keep in contact even if it’s just to have a moan. We have new ways of staying in touch through Zoom and Houseparty being the main ones.

Not being able to see my mum was extremely hard. As a family we kept in touch virtually but it is not the same and it is the longest I have gone without physically seeing my mum. Now that restrictions have changed I am looking forward to being able to sit in the garden with my mum and just have a natter. I also lost my Grandad and with how the situation was I was not able to go and see him when he was ill. It still doesn’t seem real to be honest.

I also found not having my own space hard, I would normally attend exercise classes a few times a week and this was my time. The instructor started doing the classes on Zoom which I am so grateful for, exercise clears my head and makes me feel so much better.

What has worked better than I thought
Watching my daughter cope better than us in this situation amazes me, she may have had some bad days where she couldn’t really explain specifically what was upsetting her but she has powered us through the days with her cheeky and happy personality.  Going back to school is the next phase and I am sure there will be some tears – mainly from me!