Allied Press Magazine Logo
03 magazine logo

We stayed at home: 'Not a bad place to be'

28 May 2021
Category:
Tilda

'We stayed at home' is a three-part series of three people of different ages telling their stories of lockdown life. Want to read all stories now? Click here or grab a copy of Style magazine out now!

Eleven-year-old Mathilda Smulders discovered a few pros and cons to being stuck at home all day, every day, with your family.

Before lockdown, life was busy. I’d go to school at 8am and have activities after school. I play hockey, netball, swimming and tennis, as well as sing and learn the guitar. At the weekend, I would have sports, see my friends, go on outings with my family and have sleepovers. Then came lockdown. 

My bubble was quite big. There was my mum, dad, brother, sister, my grandparents and me. It was nice being to have a lot of people in it, though sometimes it was annoying because we all get on each other’s nerves. We’re lucky we have a lot of space. 

I quite liked online learning. It was easy for me because I could spend more time on the work I needed more time to do and then go through the other work quickly. My school [St Margaret’s] was very organised – it was almost as if we were still there. We even had to go to chapel and had a reverse mufti day, which was fun. 

I liked being at home. I liked sleeping in and having more free time, and not having to worry about eating my lunch for morning tea, because I had activities. But I missed my friends.  

My friends felt a bit bored in quarantine. We used FaceTime and messaged each other every day, plus, mum set me up with a pen pal in America, one of her friend’s daughters. 

If I was talking to someone about to go into lockdown, I’d tell them that they should make a plan to do something fun every day, get outside every day, and not spend too much time on your device. 

I baked with my mum more as she was working less – and it was really fun. I enjoyed going on walks, even though sometimes my parents had to make us go. 

I can’t wait to be able to go out to the movies or trampoline park, and start my sports again, but I think it is important we are doing what we are doing. Otherwise the virus could get really bad and we could get it. It is safer to just be with your family and isolate. 

My biggest lesson? I now know it is actually okay to live in your bubble. I’ve learnt to help around the house more and that it’s not that bad to be at home all day. 

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram