Over the past five months my relationship with my 9-turning-10-year-old has shifted from mother-daughter to teacher-pupil and coworker-Lego builder but today we went out to our local high street to buy her school shoes and it wasn’t just the break with routine but the fact it was

something from the old routine - the annual fitting of her feet that have spent weeks in crocs, the staff member confirming again one foot is larger than the other, me saying “wow you’ve gone up two sizes”, her taking ages to decide on the design, me telling her to walk more

around the shop. Yes I had to wear a face mask and there was a Perspex screen between her and the assistant but everything else felt so normal - not the dreaded new normal, but the old normal. New shoes fitting like old slippers. We walked home on a high, from this simple yet

wonderful experience, and when she got home she put them on and wore them for the rest of the afternoon. “I want to soften them a bit” she said but I also knew, we both knew, that these shoes are what she will walk to school in next month, through the gate where her teachers will

stand, across the playground to where her old classmates will be, into her new classroom. It will be odd for a bit, being in a bubble, it will be that dreaded new normal, and maybe there will be delays going back, but when she does it will be, in her new shoes, a few steps back

to wonderful old normal x

Here they are