write.as/jonbeckett

We got home on Wednesday. It's now Saturday. The washing machine is still going. I think we can see the end of the washing mountain now though (thankfully). It's just a case of getting it all dry, folding it, and putting it away – which we know won't happen, don't we. A family home isn't homely unless there are piles of clean washing stacked everywhere.

I'm listening to Spotify while writing this. We signed up for a family account while we were away – so the kids could listen to music in the car without chewing through data. I need to remember to cancel it soon.

I posted some writing on Medium last night – a few thoughts about the ridiculousness of the whole “productivity” charade. I'm trying really hard to write about “me”, rather than “you”, because “you” looks far too much like mansplaining. I'm not quite sure what happened in my head, but in recent months mansplaining has become a massive trigger for me – as soon as I see it, I have to resist the temptation to reply to the author “thank you for mansplaining that to me”.

It's not just men that mansplain – my middle daughter is a master at it – mostly because she is as literal as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. On more than one occasion she has laughed (very late) at a joke, turned to us all, and started with “that's funny because...”

Did I mention that I'm on a diet? Our middle daughter needs to lose weight, and we could all do with losing a few pounds, so thought “why not”. There is now a ban on snacks around the house. I guess this is three years of sedentary pandemic behaviours catching up with us. The end goal – for my daughter – is to pass the army fitness test. Yes, you heard that right – she's looking at the army as a possible future. I'm not worried about that at all.