A Tale of Two Teenagers in Lockdown

I have blogged before about how different my two teenage sons are in so many ways.  They always have been although they seem to have more in common as they are getting older. They share the same interests to a point, they both love chilling on the Xbox and are rarely seen without a phone glued to their hands.  They do now also share a very similar taste in clothes which can be pretty tricky at the end of each week  when I sort out the washing.

But in so many other ways they are like polar opposites of each other and this has been shown more than ever during the two main lockdowns.

The older teen loves to be active, he is a daily visitor to the gym, loves rugby training and struggles if he doesn’t have the opportunity to so some sort of exercise every day.  The first lockdown was okay for him, he and his older brother set up a makeshift gym in the garage to keep them going and when he wasn’t in the garage, he did Hit workouts, ran or cycled. He was really motivated to stay in shape.

This lockdown isn’t so easy due to the miserable cold weather.  The garage doesn’t have the same appeal and he doesn’t want to cycle.  He is going for the occasional run but he is definitely finding this lockdown a lot harder physically and mentally to motivate himself to do his beloved exercise.

Having school online has been a bit of novelty for him so far.  As he was Year 11 during the first lockdown, he didn’t have a lot of work to do. He likes having a structure to the day and a lot more of the lessons are live now which has been a big improvement from last summer.  He is working hard as he always does and although I think he much prefers being in school, maintaining the usual routine is important for him.

The toughest thing for him is the lack of socialising.  Like so many teenagers, his friends, going out, parties were a big part of his life before Covid and he really misses it.  We are lucky that we have a reasonably sized house and enough space not to be on top of each other but also we do get on most of the time.  But I am well aware that it isn’t the same.  It is is his 17th birthday in two weeks and not only can he not see his mates, but he can’t start driving due to lockdown regulations.  So it is easy to see why life is currently not filling him with great joy.

His younger brother is the year below, in Year 11 and was quite happy when they announced that there would be no exams in the summer.  The second lockdown didn’t really bother him, he is someone who likes his own company and his own space.  He does have a big group of friends and in the summer, they go out a lot.  But in the winter, they can all be found in hibernation, Xbox controller in one hand, phone in the other.

I often say that a permanent state of self-isolation would make my youngest son very happy.

First lockdown turned him into a nocturnal creature, he would sleep any time between 2am and 3pm and his school day usually started late afternoon and finished around 10pm.  Not ideal, but as long he was keeping on top of his school work, he was happy.

When he realised that there would be more live lessons this time round, he was not impressed.  He liked doing things his way, but after a day of refusal, we finally made him see sense.  Now he is sold on the idea, he logs on at 9:30, camera off in his boxers and in bed.  He spreads his books and pens around him on the bed and that is where he spends his school day.  I wouldn’t say he loves it exactly, but it works for him.

My biggest concern for him is that he hasn’t been out of the house for two weeks now and I worry that this way of life is suiting him just a little too well. As for exercise, he was just starting to show an interest in the gym typically before lockdown but now the only exercise he is getting is walking downstairs for his next meal.

Apart from the lack of natural daylight, he is lucky that this way of life works for him. Many teenagers are like my eldest teenage son and are finding the eternal lockdowns really difficult. As we know, it is a necessary evil and we are all hoping a praying for some sort of light at the end of the tunnel but I do think that this situation is really affecting our teens and the sooner they can get their lives back on track the better.