Wigan mum creates unique countdown for children while their daddy's away

Lauren Whittaker, from Orrell, has put together a container of activities mainly for her daughter Sasha Hyland, three, but also for eight-month-old Lyla Hyland, to see how long it is until their dad Matt returns home from the four-month military deployment.

Titled An Activity A Day While Daddy’s Away, the jar contains numerous things to do on three types of coloured paper – green for activities, yellow for days out and pink for notes from Matt.

Lauren said: “I wanted Sasha to be able to see the jar go down and relate that to how long it is until Matt comes back, because obviously she doesn’t really understand time yet.

"But I also wanted it to be something that was going to get us out the house and keep us busy each day, because I am guilty of staying in the house with them, so that’s why I came up with the idea.

"Obviously doing an activity every single day isn’t fully doable, because sometimes things come up, like Sasha was ill last week so I didn’t want to do activities with her while she was ill.

"So Matt wrote down 20 little notes for Sasha so she could take something out of the jar for that and then the yellow ones are for when we’ve got a special day planned, which aren’t in there so when she takes a yellow one out I can explain it to her.

“It’s been really good doing it and I like the fact that Sasha will have a log of everything we’ve done while Matt’s been away.

"I like to try and turn a negative into a positive and I feel like we’re doing that and the time goes a lot faster as well. It’s something that’s enjoyable for all of us ”

Lauren has been documenting their countdown on social media for Matt and has had numerous messages of support from people who are planning on doing the same thing.

She said: “That’s why I started posting it on TikTok, so he could see what we were up to. When he sees the one in the morning, he really looks forward to seeing the TikTok at night time.

"Sasha loved going to see The Little Mermaid as one of her activities, but she also enjoys the easy ones like going on a colour hunt.

"Some of the ones that are in there I try and do to give me and Sasha some one-on-one time – because Lyla takes up so much attention, Sasha doesn’t get as much anymore.

"I’ve had military wives messaging me saying, ‘this is amazing, thank you so much for the ideas’ and other parents saying they’re going to do it in the summer holidays.

"I’ve also had other military people who haven’t got any kids saying this is inspirational. It’s nice to see that I’m helping other people.”

Follow Lauren’s activities at tiktok.com/@laurenwhittaker28 and instagram.com/hylands_militaryhomelife