Pandemic Parenting--Still
Right now we’re happy and tired and hopeful.
After a year and a half COVID isn’t as scary as it once was. We’ve learned to navigate around it, also our fear tank has run dry. We grit our teeth behind our masks and do the best we can.
We’re not quite there yet. Our boys are too young to be vaccine eligible. There is no deep, or semi deep breath, for us as parents.
I’m still sad for what the boys are missing out on because of our comfortability/safety. I’m still nervous about the things we are doing, navigating a big gray void of caution and wondering where a landmine might be if I overstep.
I’m still annoyed every time I’m juggling two kids, a diaper bag, water bottles, snacks, The Special Blankie, putting shoes on, to get out the door and have to remember the damn masks.
I’m more annoyed when I’m juggling all those things and physically sweating as I have to keep my face covered--and even worse when we’re somewhere like the doctor’s office where A is SO nervous, clinging to me like a koala, and I can’t take my mask off to kiss or soothe him.
Right now we’re also weak and tired and hope is waning.
It feels like we just made it through the biggest tsunami of stress, making sense of this virus for our family and new waves are rolling in knocking us beneath the surface again.
Our daycare, like many others in the area, is short staffed. They haven’t been outright closed for a day or days--yet. Yesterday morning, as I was doing my hair for work, we got a last minute emergency notice that we needed to keep the boys home.
So we flexed, like we have been doing, over and over again. I took the boys to the library to play as a distraction from our small house. I wrangled snacks, with my mask on, on a conference call, with one earbud in, manning a ladybug puppet in one hand and strategically muting and unmuting myself with the other, sweating all the while.
I’ve flexed so far backward it feels like there are no bones left in my body.
I know a lot of this is our forever now, but how can we keep this up? And when will it be done?
After a year and a half COVID isn’t as scary as it once was. We’ve learned to navigate around it, also our fear tank has run dry. We grit our teeth behind our masks and do the best we can.
We’re not quite there yet. Our boys are too young to be vaccine eligible. There is no deep, or semi deep breath, for us as parents.
I’m still sad for what the boys are missing out on because of our comfortability/safety. I’m still nervous about the things we are doing, navigating a big gray void of caution and wondering where a landmine might be if I overstep.
I’m still annoyed every time I’m juggling two kids, a diaper bag, water bottles, snacks, The Special Blankie, putting shoes on, to get out the door and have to remember the damn masks.
I’m more annoyed when I’m juggling all those things and physically sweating as I have to keep my face covered--and even worse when we’re somewhere like the doctor’s office where A is SO nervous, clinging to me like a koala, and I can’t take my mask off to kiss or soothe him.
Right now we’re also weak and tired and hope is waning.
It feels like we just made it through the biggest tsunami of stress, making sense of this virus for our family and new waves are rolling in knocking us beneath the surface again.
Our daycare, like many others in the area, is short staffed. They haven’t been outright closed for a day or days--yet. Yesterday morning, as I was doing my hair for work, we got a last minute emergency notice that we needed to keep the boys home.
So we flexed, like we have been doing, over and over again. I took the boys to the library to play as a distraction from our small house. I wrangled snacks, with my mask on, on a conference call, with one earbud in, manning a ladybug puppet in one hand and strategically muting and unmuting myself with the other, sweating all the while.
I’ve flexed so far backward it feels like there are no bones left in my body.
I know a lot of this is our forever now, but how can we keep this up? And when will it be done?