However, I accepted that was the job and, like most parents, I always planned to make it up to them one day...
Fate seems to have played its part there as I have spent more sustained quality time with my family now than ever before and I can honestly say it has been a special time for me just to ‘be there’ for them. I have two sons, Cooper (14) and Jackson (12), so both teenagers really, who bring all the wonderful and frustrating things ;) that children at that age can bring into a household, especially during a pandemic lockdown.
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I’ve loved being able to include them in the business while at home, assisting on photographing products and bouncing ideas around. Teenagers always seem to have an opinion on everything it seems (lol). I’m a great believer in LIFE Lessons as well as school time so we’ve also been working on practical projects like chopping wood, making things, drawing and painting, cooking together and generally mucking about in the garden – another space I’ve really appreciated for the first time.
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With the help of our suppliers and factories operating in a safe and considerate way, we’ve still managed to complete our new collections for the rest of this season and for Autumn/Winter 2020, so we’re still working hard and being productive.
Although this is a testing time for all of us, we’ve embraced the situation as much as we can and learned to move more slowly, think more quietly and produce more considered creative, mainly due to the lack of white noise from all the daily distractions that normal life can bring. I’ve even started meditating, something I thought I could never relax enough to do.
I for one, have enjoyed running our company this way and being able to carry on a business remotely during such an unprecedented time has made us very thankful.
Phil James: founder of &SONS