These are crazy times. Our community is self-quarantining and the life we were living a few weeks ago is no longer. Coronavirus is not only making people sick but it’s also uprooting our children from their schools and adults from their jobs. We have found ourselves living a science fiction novel.
One thing is for certain, my boys will remember this and they will tell their kids about the time when COVID-19 took over the world and school was canceled “forever.”
Not a lot is in my control right now. I’m forced to work remote (I kind of like it though). My children are required to participate in school virtually. We are forced to eat at home because bars and restaurants are closed. We are forced to cancel our family trip to visit Gary’s daughters.
What IS in my control is the memories we make.
I’m choosing to give my children good memories of the Coronavirus. They will have memories of mom taking 15-minute breaks to have a family reading pow-wow (from actual paper books – not a device). They will remember Legos, at-home science experiments, cuddles with mom (and the dog).
I’m choosing to remind my boys just how wonderful it is that we live in a time where technology can keep us all connected. We can FaceTime our friends and our siblings in other states. We have access to education and school work via iPads. We have endless entertainment with streaming TV. And let’s not forget about the closet full of board games! Imagine if this had happened back in the early 1990’s? Before the internet and computers were widely adopted? That would be true isolation.
I’m embracing the change. I’m actually enjoying the change of pace.
As a working mom, I’ve hated how much I miss out on. How little I can help my kids with their schoolwork. How little time I spend at home.
You may disagree, but I choose to see being self quarantined as a gift. It is challenging and not easy. But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunker down with your loved ones and do our best to keep life moving forward.
Our kids won’t remember all the assignments they accomplished or the math strategy they mastered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nope, they just aren’t.
They will, however, remember family board games and jigsaw puzzles. They will remember the fun lunches mom made in between conference calls. They will remember coming together as a family to make the best of a terrible crazy time.
We can do this mamas! We can give our kids incredible memories and hugs and snuggles. We can give 5-minutes to catch up with a coworker without thinking twice. We can give 15-minutes for a dance party or a read-out-loud when we are working from home.
As adults we miss our normal routine. Let us not forget our children miss their routine too. Let’s be kind to one another and be thoughtful with how we are connecting with each other during this crazy science fiction movie we now call Earth.
Love, Mel