How five Canberrans are marking Mother's Day in the time of COVID-19

I've always loved the fact I can jump in the car after training or a game and drive to see mum for her birthday or Mother's Day.

So having a double whammy this week of not being able to see her for both has been tough. She has already told me not to worry and mum knows how much I love her, so we'll be on Facetime at some point during the day on Sunday.

We might have to set up a Zoom chat because one of my sisters, her husband and their kids have moved to Queensland, so mum's only got one of her kids at home. I've always been grateful that mum and dad are just down the road in Goulburn. I know I'm lucky because some of the other players aren't able to see their parents as regularly as me.

Hopefully these restrictions are only in place for a couple of weeks if everyone keeps doing the right thing.

Mum's the rock of the family. She looked after all of us and dad as well, she knows that she's a gem and she's been there every step of the way since I started playing in the NRL.

But even after more than 10 years she still cant sit there and watch me kick goals. She'll get up and walk away, she watches it on TV with the ladies who run the jersey store.

This Mother's Day is also special for my wife, Brittney. It's her last Mother's Day before she's due to give birth. Because of the NRL biosecurity measures I can't even leave the house to go to the shops anyway, so I might have to look at ordering some UberEats from a nice restaurant in Canberra or something like that.

I love my mum. My whole life I've known through all she has said and done I'm loved, safe and secure. It's been a wonderful gift to me and my sisters for life and living.

She's very much her own person, spirited, quirkily stylish, with a curiosity for life and determination I admire and appreciate the older I get. Never short of an opinion, not swayed by populism of any times, she's always been a terrific conversationalist and someone who gets out there and make things happen.

Mum is always on the go. Her "get on with it and you can do it" approach to life is something we have inherited from her.

I never felt bored as a child or adult and I think this has a lot to do with how she has lived her life. Every moment is there to be had. Don't waste it.

Definitely a feminist, she showed us how to hold our own in this world. I'm so lucky she has great genes and is living a long and healthy life still blazing a trail for us.

When I think about it I really did have quite a happy and carefree upbringing with no great dramas beyond occasional teenage sulks, bouts of meanness because mum was annoying or embarrassing because of what she said or what she did or her dress sense (all of which I love now) and the odd night too late out. I think I was just too busy doing stuff - probably a parental plan.

Because I work in the arts there has always been a lot of travelling, living in multiple places, working all hours and in a very intense way. So I'm pretty good at keeping connected with mum. But I never imagined a COVID-19 situation, my mum and dad having to isolate and it being difficult for me to respond quickly and immediately to any request by hopping on plane has not been an option. That has been a real weight through all of this time. The worry of it. Although the flip side has been we talk more often - every couple of days - and that has been a great emotional leveller.

Our Mothers Day plan: Family Zoom get-together with bubbly. Plus surprise gift delivered!

My mum Barbara is 91 and in excellent health except for being almost blind. She doesn't let this setback dampen her incredible enthusiasm for life.

Mum has always had the most positive outlook on life and she has kept smiling all throughout the coronavirus ordeal, despite the many challenges it has thrown our way.

Her nursing home has been locked down for more than a month meaning we haven't been able to visit mum for far too long. All of our contact has been on the phone and that's just not the same. We have missed the hugs, the kisses and the special close contact between a mother and her sons.

To make matters worse, mum had a skin cancer removed from her face six weeks ago and the rules at her nursing home meant she had to go into 14 days isolation in her room. For such a social person as mum is, that was a fortnight of great frustration. The brothers all called her daily to help keep her spirits up and mum would always have a smile in her voice and never complain. In fact, she had only positive things to say about the 'special treatment' she felt she was getting from the staff at St Luke's who love her very much.

Last week came good news. The nursing home relaxed the restrictions and is allowing time-limited visits from relatives strictly by appointment. I saw mum [last Tuesday] for the first time in two months and our first instinct was to reach out to each other for a huge hug - we were quickly reminded that this is a breach of the social distancing rules in place. While there was no physical contact, we enjoyed a cuppa and a wonderful catch up. It's the strangest thing having to book in a time to visit your mum but these are unusual times. No complaints though. Getting to spend some quality time together was like Mother's Day came early!

We are now counting down the days when we can again take mum out for a stroll along the beach, a lovely lunch and a cheeky glass of white wine.

I haven't spent this much time with my mum, Beatrice, for a long time and it's been just lovely. Once my work, Ginger Catering at the National Arboretum was shut down with the COVID 19 restrictions I decided to head out to our family farm, Ingelara, to isolate with my parents. It's a working farm, known for its biodynamic approach; we grow garlic, potatoes, and pumpkins, available at EPIC markets. It was a tough summer, it's been good to be there and help out. I think if I was just at home watching Netflix all day I would go quite batty. I'm quite enjoying the physical labour and by 8pm I'm exhausted and ready for bed.

Mum and my dad Tobias came out from Germany in the 90s, my brother was six months and I was 18 months old.

As well as being mother and daughter, mum and I are good friends; I think she's been enjoying my company. We cook dinner together, she's quite happy to be my kitchen hand. Cooking every night she doesn't get bored, but she runs out of ideas so she loves it when I decide what to cook.

As a chef I work weekends and nights and I don't see her as much as I like; this year was the first time in five years I spent Easter with her, mum made her traditional bread braid for breakfast, something I have really missed!

I wish I could make her Mother's Day breakfast, but I'll be at the Arboretum cooking for our Mother's Day barbecue. We'll be serving up a takeaway breakfast in the Discovery Garden. There'll be house-baked pastries and savoury options such as spiced sweet potato and feta fritters as well as egg and bacon rolls and bratwurst in Sonoma milk bun.

I'll go home after that and cook mum a nice dinner. She says everyday should be Mother's Day and we should spoil her more often. I agree.

Normally we do a family dinner, with my mum and her husband, maybe nieces, nephews, my brother and my partner.

Its a really lovely time and mum actually loves it more because it brings everybody together. I think that is what has greater meaning for her, she loves that whole sense of family.

It will be a different, alternate-reality Mother's Day this year.

Now we have that slight window here you can still visit people. I still firmly believe that you have to be careful how you construct that and who you go and visit.

The bug hasn't gone away. It may be in hibernation, but it just takes one person to spread it around again.

I value my mum too much to just go busting in, going "yee haw - the breaks are off".

So we've made a decision that i'm going to bake her something. I'm making her a bundt cake and I'll take one of those over. For her mothers day present, I'll talk to her through the window.

We will have a proper dinner in a few weeks time when we can really see what the outcome of this is going to be.

She lives in Canberra. She's been here for many many years. She has run businesses, and big schools, and she's helped me with my little enterprise and I think the world of her.

She is incredibly intelligent and sharp, and incredibly supportive and cares about people who are not as fortunate.

To me she has always been a role model. But I don't tell this too terribly much because I don't want it to go to her head.

She is one of those people where people that meet her always remember her for a good reason. I think if that's the worst thing you leave behind you in life, that's not a bad outcome.

I wish all of the mums and their families a really happy Mother's Day. Here in Canberra we're probably one of the best cities in the world to be having this situation occur.

I think its more about everybody than us this year. It is certainly putting the torch back onto community.

In a way, that's the real message for Mother's Day too. Its not just our own mums, its all the other mums out there too, many of them who are having a tough time.