Pandemic Parenting - Chapter 1

I've been itching to write down some of my thoughts on what it's been like to parent during the COVID-19 crisis. In a word: unpredictable. One day I'm going about my business, dropping the kids off at daycare and school, going to work, going to the gym and then BOOM. School is temporarily closed, then permanently closed. Then my office closed indefinitely. I'm one of the lucky ones with an understanding manager and the ability to work remotely (shout out to Yardi!). This is something I will be forever grateful for.

The first few weeks of homeschooling were exhausting. Figuring out how to manage my increased work load, Parker's school work, my conference calls, his conference calls. Learning new technology in order to make it all work. I pride myself in my ability to plan ahead but there was no planning ahead in this case. For the first couple of weeks while teachers were courageously transitioning to distance learning and parents were trying to wrap their brains around what was safe and not safe, while we were all absorbing all the news we could find and trying to figure out how to navigate this new world we found ourselves in, there was no planning. Everyone was looking for toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes and pasta sauce. Stores started limiting how much you could buy. Governor Newsom announced a statewide lock down. It was a scary time. We tried to pass all info to Parker through a kid filter, limit how much direct news reached his ears and tried to explain the situation to him in a way he would understand. The thing that saved me was the fact that Harrison's daycare stayed open. Thank God for Rosa! It's one thing to work from home with a 7 year old. It's an entire different thing to try to work from home with a 1 1/2 year old. You best believe that when I was making masks for our family, I also made a bunch for her family.

Once we realized homeschooling was going to be a permanent thing for the rest of the school year, I went into planning mode. I created a Google sheet where I would track and plan all of Parker's school work. We had daily morning meetings to discuss our schedules and quickly fell into a rhythm.  Drop off Harry, breakfast, gardening or going for a walk with Frank, school work, lunch and then more school work and Zoom calls until Tuan came home. He learned really fast that he could get away with iPad time while I was on conference calls. There were some very difficult crying and yelling moments but overall I'm grateful for all the quality time I got to spend with Parker. We starting filming "Parker's Nature Show," took hikes, started a garden, he learned to ride a bike! I homeschooled for 13 weeks and now it's time to complete the survey for our preference for the fall. When I asked what his preference was, Parker said he wants to stay home with me so I guess I didn't do so bad.

As the economy rushes to open up, we're taking things nice and slow. We're keeping our masks on and continuing to limit the kids' exposure to any public indoor spaces. If history has taught us anything, the 2nd wave this fall will be even worse. Hang in their mamas.