I have been at home for a week now self-isolating (I'm fine, just a 'normal' virus with a cough, no temperature). It does mean that my family have also been at home self-isolating since Tuesday. So we have already had four days at home, balancing work, parenting, and home-schooling - and know how many parents will be feeling from Monday as we, nationally, go into the first week of home-schooling and juggling work and children under one roof.

One thing that has become increasingly important is being able to keep in touch with friends and family virtually. The ability to physically see someone, and view facial expressions is so important, and brings a richness that cannot be achieved with audio alone.

I coach my daughter's football team, and like all teams around the country at grassroots level, Saturday mornings was footie time. So instead, I organised for twelve 11-year old girls to 'meet virtually' via Zoom at 10.00am (our normal KO time) on Saturday. As you can imagine, like any new virtual meeting enviroment, there were some teething problems, but they absolutely loved it - just seeing each other and being able to chat and even swap ideas of what to do as a group before their next 'online footie meeting'. Yes, they want to do it every Saturday at 10.00...

Footie team catch-up online: KO at 10.00am every Saturday

Today was Mothering Sunday - one of the biggest days in the year for family gatherings. And this year will be one that we will never forget. To try and do something with our families we set up online meetings with the Mums in our family - and again it introduced some serious teething problems from a technical perspective. But we got there, and it was lovely to be able to get our family, my Mum, and my brother and his wife in one virtual space. We have actively encouraged both sets of parents to try and use it with their friends and wider family to help them feel less isolated.

There are lots of options out there, and there will be some issues with setting people up initially, but hopefully everyone will be able to get virtually connected to support each other and keep those relationships going.