Post Brexit

I don't know about you, but every conversation I have these days, whether over dinner, over a drink or at the school gates (and sometimes at the school gates with a drink - but that's another story), it's all about Brexit.

Out of EU and out of Euro

Whilst we are experiencing the inevitable shockwaves of leaving the EU, I am confident that we can weather this storm.

From a personal point of view, while my husband and I worry about the effect Brexit has on our own businesses, on interest rates, security of income and jobs etc, our boys live in blissful ignorance.

For them, their only concern is whether England will still be able to play in Euro 2020. Given England's dismal performance in Euro 2016, I don't think it will be Brexit that will keep them out of that competition.

One of the positives I thought would come out of Brexit was the UK being banned from Eurovision. But apparently not. We still have years and years of humiliation in that competition to look forward to as well.

The world keeps turning

So Brexit has happened and there's nothing we can do to change it. No amount of signatures on a petition, wild promises of blocking Brexit, or talks of being "out" but actually being "in" will reverse what has happened.

So suck it up, stop whining and get back to work. No-one really knows what the future holds, but we certainly won't be doing ourselves any favours by squabbling about it and wringing our hands in despair.

My crush of the moment, Professor Brian Cox, gave a great interview recently and talked about science and democracy.

"Science," he says "is a philosophy of ignorance. You never know anything. You must begin from that. Democracy is very similar. It's an acceptance that we don't know for sure the best way to run a country. So you do it by trial and error. The most valuable lesson is to be comfortable with the unknown."

I wonder if he'd run for PM?

Brexit free zone

So my house is being turned into a Brexit free zone, and instead we are going to get on with enjoying the summer.

Except there isn't one. A summer that is. We may be divided over Europe, but at least we can be united in grumbling about our appalling weather. We may not be able to agree on who should run the country, but in true British style we can come together for a good old whinge about the rain. And perhaps we can blame Boris for that too?

The summer ahead

So to keep Brexit off the table, we asked our boys over dinner the other to day to nominate two things they'd like to do over the summer.

The results, rather like Brexit, were surprising to say the least. We expected the normal responses of "do nothing", "play on electronics", and "eat McDonalds every day" (which I am willing to consider to save on washing up and hassle).

But no, these ideas were not mooted. Instead we got "go shopping at Smiggle" which my husband and I had to Google as we'd not heard of that one. Turns out, Smiggle is the new children's fad. Some sort of shop that sells a lot of rubbish but kids love it. We happily agreed to this suggestion, as long as he used his own money and didn't clutter up the kitchen with more smelly pens and unwanted stickers.

The other suggestion came from my eldest (normally the sensible one) and made me choke on my pasta.

"I would like to go to the beach and watch lovely ladies in their bikinis."

It was almost as if he had channelled my husband's innermost thoughts. But at least we'd had an entire dinner without a mention of Brexit. Long may it continue.

Amanda Coxen, Working Mum and Tinies Director