Caitríona Redmond: Living on less as a parent is challenging and adds to my mental load
Pic: iStock
While writing my column this week the kids forgot that I work from home. Never mind the audiobooks or banging of footballs in the background, that’s normal for family life and over time I learned to tune it out. On average every 7 minutes in the space of an hour they wandered into the office for a chat. I love chatting with them but it’s impossible to concentrate and keep all of the plates in the air when I’m being interrupted so regularly.
Calmly, I grabbed a hair elastic and tied my hair up. I meant business. The meandering into my space eased, and then the rate of emails increased. There was a utility bill, a reminder for a dog licence, work queries, 10 emails in 20 minutes and while none were spam, several needed almost immediate responses.
