Today is Day 11 of our quarantined life. I think we’re starting to get into the groove of it. Balancing schoolwork, work-work, fun and down-time (well not for the adults). I’m finding as each day passes it gets both easier, and harder.
Well, we’re learning when to do schoolwork (morning), when to have down-time (after lunch so mom can sneak in some work). And of course how to sneak in some fun during the weekdays and ALL weekend long.
But, I’m also finding that when I watch a video on social distancing for kids, see a contest our local police department is putting on for them, watch my kids FaceTime their friends, or just simply reading check-in emails from their teachers I burst into tears.
having to explain when they see their friends walking by that they can’t play together.
the thought of them not having their end-of-the-year concert, or preschool graduation.
the fact that this virus could make their grandparents, parents or aunts and uncles really sick
that they have to learn all of this at such a young age.
Having a 7 year old, 5 year old, 2 year old and 3 month old during this time to teach and entertain, plus try to run 2 businesses and cook and clean it’s been a REAL struggle. My mental and physical strength have weaned. I’m doing my best, but feel far from being good at it.
Yesterday I read something on Facebook that said, your kids won’t remember what work they did during this time, they’ll remember how they felt, and it put me back into place. My kids are smart, they’ll catch up academically next year, and the year after if I totally screw up teaching them. But, they’ll remember if we made them feel safe, if they had fun, if we did different things with them than we normally do.
Let’s do some schoolwork, but really, let’s have fun. Let’s play lava with the living room pillows, let’s build a fort, let’s watch a movie in the middle of the day as a family. Because in the end, we’re molding them to be the leaders of the future. So, let’s teach our little leaders of today how to love, be kind and have fun. Maybe they will have more compassion than our leaders today have, and maybe, just maybe they’ll be changing the world for the better.
So, I wipe back my tears before they awake from their naps, take a sip of my ginger tea, and work on changing my mindset from one of being trapped and scared to one of excitement and happiness.
We can do this. It’s just a moment in time we’ll look back and talk about.
I’ll just take the extra cuddles and snuggles these days and treasure them, knowing soon they’ll be too old to want them anymore.
Work can wait for now.
Oh, and thank goodness for FaceTime and Zoom to help us all see our friends near and far. At least we’re all home and can finally connect!
