Despite everything that has happened over the past 12 months, those two noises define lockdown for me. Every time either of them chimed through the house, there was a sense of dread and resignation about what was to follow.

But, as the light at the end of the tunnel is finally getting brighter, and children return to school this week, can I look forward to enjoying the silence?

Probably not. Today, for the first time in nearly a year, I have the house to myself and I’m not sure I like it. As with children going back to school, it will take me time to get used to it again.

Having worked from home since April, 2019, I had created my own office space and had a routine, including the school run, and the daily, frantic checks for missing shoes, books and coats, as well as the last-minute projects and letters that involved each day.

But, once the working day began, I could make and receive calls – before anyone had heard of Zoom – and visit clients whenever and wherever I needed to. I could move between rooms whenever I needed to, to grab stationery, files, or just for a change of scenery.

When lockdown began on March 23 last year, the four of us were in our little bubble, doing our thing as best we could – my wife teaching lessons to her school, while the children were trying to get to grips with the other side of that coin at theirs.

Background noise and interruptions were suddenly a major problem for all of us. You had to think about your day ahead and make sure you had everything you needed so you didn’t suddenly appear in the background of a Zoom call as you tried to grab some more A4 paper.

We had to think about which phone handsets were switched on in each room so they didn’t interrupt lessons if someone called, and, as entertaining as it was, the Lone Ranger doorbell chime had to go.

You couldn’t yell upstairs to see if anyone wanted something to eat or drink, and you couldn’t just switch on the vacuum to clear up after whatever the cats had been into.

But the sounds that will stay with me are the Microsoft Teams new notification, which must have echoed through the house hundreds of times a day, and the BBC News’s breaking news alert which was met with a startled look and a chorus of “now what?”.

And I know the kids won’t be in any hurry to resume Teams lessons either. Last week’s screen time showed they were each on Teams for more than 50 hours and each spent more than 30 hours on Word. Schools are doing the best they can and have done an amazing job to actually teach, rather than just occupy, but it can’t be good for them to spend so much time in front of a screen, especially as their lockdown ‘down time’ usually involves Minecraft, Roblox, flight simulator and racing games, etc.

You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief this week from parents, teachers and children as well as things finally start to return to the new normal.

But now my lockdown inmates have escaped, I feel a sense of loss. It’s a bit like the final part of a holiday you never want to end.

Although you had to be careful not to disturb anyone, it was reassuring knowing they were here and that they were safe.

And you could set your watch by the stampede down the stairs for school break and lunch times, and the mad dash for the trampoline and search for the cats at the end of the school day.

So now it’s just me, Zoom and the phone. Oh, and the cats, who will no doubt return to their old routine of sitting on the mouse mat or keyboard once they realise it’s just me here to give them any attention – ie food.

It’d be great to hear what you will be glad to see the back of after lockdown.

#homeschooling #lockdown #teams #notifications