How to juggle children, work and baking?

My Name’s Steph, I volunteer for Generation Scotland and lead the TeenCovidLife communications and engagement.

Steph smiling and holding her pineapple turnover up to the camera

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to start baking and made this pineapple turnover

I have two young daughters, one who would normally go to school and the other to nursery. So, life has changed a lot since they are now at home all the time. My husband and I are both working from home and we are trying to split our time, so that one of us looks after the kids while the other works. That doesn’t always work out and sometimes we are both working whilst they run around or watch telly!

We have had to get to grips with home-schooling, but luckily nothing too difficult as it is only primary 1! I have actually quite enjoyed being more hands-on with Kirsty’s education and it is nice to see what she is learning. She really misses seeing her friends at school though.

The only downtime is when the kids go to bed. When it has been sunny we have taken it in turns to either go out for a run, a walk or a bike ride in the evening. When it has been less nice we have watched a lot of Netflix and treated ourselves to the odd take-away.

Weekends have been pretty relaxed since there are no swimming lessons or birthday parties to get the children to. I have had more time to cook, so have done a roast every Sunday and tried out some classic puddings like pineapple upside down cake or apple crumble.

A group of friends and I have been doing a 30 day music challenge, which was a lot of fun. Also, an old friend from a previous job has been organising catch ups on Zoom, so I have seen old work colleagues that way. I have a number of friends who work for the NHS and a number who are teachers. I think all the key workers are inspirational!

Stephanie's children sat at table working on school work

Home schooling has been a challenge but the children are loving it!

I think I have become used to lockdown life. At the start I was really worried about my daughter missing school and also about whether there would be enough food to feed my family. Now we are doing well, there is plenty of food on the shelves and the kids are happy so things feel a lot more settled.

I was attracted to the CovidLife surveys because I think it is crucial to capture how the nation is feeling at the moment. This is the biggest health crisis in my lifetime and it will have a long-lasting impact on our physical and mental health. I really wanted to work with the team as they are helping to understand this.

It was a challenge to start working with the team during lockdown. I have met a couple of the team before but most of them I met over Zoom or Teams which feels a little strange. Having said that, I would say that my favourite thing is that the team are all very supportive and lovely to work with.

I’m excited to see that the hard work has paid off. Over 4,000 young people have taken part in TeenCovidLife so far. I can’t wait to see what young people are thinking during the pandemic, so that we might help plan for the future.

two children at a table waving to the camera behind them