“I have two boys and getting them ready and out of the house can sometimes feel like a challenge. Things are better now but my eldest child has had some health issues which means he hasn’t always attended school, something which put a huge amount of pressure on us and meant I could do very little throughout the day. It’s a little easier now since he started secondary school last year, as he has become more independent.

I make breakfast for them while checking Instagram and other social media for any work-related content (travel bookings and requests to be on TV and radio), then my nine year old plays PlayStation and chats to his friends online while he gets dressed. My eldest, health permitting, sets off to walk to school with friends at 8am and my youngest and I are out of the door by 8.40am to walk the 15 minutes or so to school.

I then try to do something healthy like have a run and also go to the gym. I am not good at staying in and working on my own, so I will usually go to a coffee shop and tap away at my laptop, taking travel bookings for my team and coaching others to earn money from travel. I am also often on radio or TV as a travel expert, but this is ad hoc and usually just from my phone. Often I will meet a friend or two for coffee or lunch.

As a single parent responsible for most of the school pick-ups, my working day ends quite early. We are lucky that both schools are near a large park and so the kids play there for a couple of hours some days. I stand around chatting to other parents or sometimes answering messages from my phone. There have been many times I’ve reported on TV or radio from the park too! I just find a quiet corner and, with radio at least, pop a jacket over my head as an impromptu sound break.

The hardest part about being a single parent is doing everything with no one to share the load with and no one else with whom to divide tasks. There’s a lot of pressure on me as the sole earner too, as well as juggling all the weekday tasks. When the boys do go to their dad’s every other weekend, I really enjoy the downtime. I think I am slightly scarred from the days of single parenting during lockdown, so when they are not there I am always out and about – either travelling or enjoying time with friends.

Because there are great swathes of the day during which I am concentrating on getting the boys ready, picked up, exercised and fed, my working day usually starts again after I have made dinner. I will flick through my phone while they have friends round or play with them online and answer messages and spend time on social media. Bedtime is also another challenge – again doing it all on my own. But once they’re in bed I will again do a few messages and social media work on my phone rather than watch anything on TV. I do love my work so I’m happy to spend the time on it in the evenings.

My biggest piece of advice would be to use back-up when you can – it really does take a village. I have a very sociable home and am always happy to be the house that the kids invite their friends back to. But I am also lucky to have great parents who although in their 80s and living in Spain often fly over to help out for a few weeks when needed. I also have a great circle of friends and we all pitch in and help each other out. Recently, some of us went on holiday together and that was also a game changer – the kids having friends to hang out with and adults having other adults to socialise with is the perfect combination.”

Lisa, freelance journalist, travel expert and mum of two children aged 12 and nine

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