SSSOOO my children have been out of school since March 13, 2020 that's when the COVID-19 virus was declared a national pandemic. On that fateful day, we were told that schools would be closed for 14 days. At my day job, I work for a school-based program and I was notified the same day that as long as schools were closed I would be working from home. Now I have been a self-employed mom for 9 years and I'm used to having to work at home and with my children. I had only been back to work 3 weeks before, what I call, ‘the day the world changed.” The difference was my kids WENT TO SCHOOL during the day which afforded me the time to balance my work and home life.
In the time span of 2 weeks, we had been informed that we would all be home, TOGETHER, for 24 hours. It was during this time that my husband became infected with the Coronavirus. Two weeks later I came down with it. So not only were we all home indefinitely but we were sick as well. It was by the sheer grace of God that the kids didn't get sick.
Anyway, back to my point. With all of us working from home I quickly came to realize that we were in need of a new home schedule. In the space of a few weeks, we went from a 5:45 am wake up time, baseball, and swim practice to Zoom class meetup and Google classrooms.
Our days became slower, the kids were able to set up their own space and schedules. We learned to carve out our own space and routines in the house as well as connect in a new way as a family.
Below are some tips that have helped me when it came to motherhood and parenting all around during the pandemic:
- Find your routine. Whether it means getting up earlier or even staying up an hour past your usual bed time. Carving out time that is just yours is so vital to have that mental break sometime throughout the day.
- Get dressed. Yeah many of us want to lounge around without a bra and in yoga pants all day because we DON'T have to leave the house but this causes you to loose touch with the outside world. IF you need a reason to get dressed go for a walk. Get some fresh air. (Bonus it's a great way to get your kiddos outside and talk as a family!)
- Dance it out! My sister introduced me to this concept which she got from Grey's Anatomy. It was something that Meredith and Christina did whenever they were stressed, sad or even happy come to think of it.
I won't lie and say it's easy, there are some days where I want to run screaming when it came to getting my kids to sit and do their assignments, and now that I am back in the throws of corporate America AND running a photography business, while returning to online school myself, and trying to complete tasks leaves me with stress knots in my neck the size of softballs!
Trust me I know that I am blessed to have an income and I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I was not prepared for this. This is not something they taught me in my childbirth classes. It's more Baptism by fire especially with this new normal.
I'd love to hear how you and your family are or have adjusted to this. Got any tips for other momma's? Leave them in the comments.
