Staying at home

So it seems the world is in a weird and strange place. We are faced with a pandemic, thanks to Rona, that requires people stay home, don’t go out unless you absolutely need too, we are asked to practice social distancing in order to stop the spread of this terrible and life Threatening virus. It seems scary, strange and all so new. Business are closed, schools, and daycares are closed, themed parks, and national parks are closed, millions of people have lost jobs, the streets and highways are emptier than usual, people are including the rich and famous are told to work from home, providing they have the capability, and we even have curfews! Only essential buisness are open, such as grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, places that supply basic living necessities, hospitals, doctors offices, banks, etc. And restuarnts or fast food can only do take out, or delivery. States are implementing “Stay At Home“ orders in order for people to quarantine and remain safe and limit/stop the spread of Rona. We have finally done a state wide Stay At Home Order, and people are flipping out! Lol Some have already been quarantined for weeks, and with everything closed, there’s not much to do anyways. I’m going to be honest, this isn’t a huge change for me. It is a new adjustment though for sure. As mentioned before,schools are closed. So that means I no longer have my few hours of free time alone to do things. Yes it sucks, and I miss it for sure! So now I am left with the task to continue her schooling at home while she is out. First off, I am no teacher. Yes I teach my child lessons, help her learn, teach her how to do things on her own, how to use her manners, etc, but what I mean is I am no SCHOOL TEACHER. There is a difference between a teacher teaching a child, and a parent teaching a child. Someone said I am now “homeschooling” my child. No, no no, that is not what this is. This is being thrown into a situation we are not prepared for. This is parents being forced to learn suddenly how to adapt to a new norm. There are online classes that some people already do, but this is new. Kids will not be able to graduate with their class now, kids will not be able to attend prom, kids cannot see and interact with their friends any more. For school age kids and even adults, they are implementing video learning and conferencing, giving online work and weekly/daily curriculum. My daughter is in preschool, and though her school is emailing her curriculum, (which is basically just the teachers hand book) it’s a different experience trying to get my child to listen, and pay attention and realize I am playing teacher for now. She doen’t really understand what’s going on, and she keeps asking when she will be going back to school to see her teachers and her friends. We are trying to get into a flow and figure out what works best for us. It really is a learning curve. I truly do appreciate her teachers and we miss them more so during this time.😩

So not only is my daughter not in school, my husband is also not in school. He is going to school for digital video and film production, and doing online school is definitely a new experience and a huge learning curve. Since this course is mostly hands on, and requires the use of certain computer programs, and equipment usage. Not all the students have access to those things that are required for the course. Of course being on campus means you have acccess to these things easily. Now they are forced to figure out a different way to continue their education some how. I mean are they supposed to film a project with a phone, and then have to use imovie or final cut or some app to edit ? If the students wanted to do that, why even pay to attend the school? Obviously the teachers and staff are in a pickle, and racking their brains on how to make it work, and it’s frustrating on both sides. They too are doing video learning and giving out assignments. Some of these students actually still have work, because they are an essential employee, and need to keep working to pay their bills. They are also putting their life’s at risk, which I can only imagine is stressful enough. 🙏🏽Hopefully things will eventually flow smoothly, and things will get better.

So now we are all home 24/7. Trying to work around and within our individual schedules. My daughter being a kid, wants our attention pretty much all day, but I’m grateful for the times she does play on her own, either outside playing, watching,a movie or having some tablet time. This does allow me to get some things done. I always feel like I can get more tasks done when I’m alone, but seems that’s harder to do these days🤦🏽‍♀️ My husband and I do help each other when needed so we can each get things done we may want too. For example, when I need to film a new makeup video, He will watch our daughter and ensure I can get some time alone to do what I need to do. Otherwise it takes me waaaaay longer because I have to constantly stop to answer and see to her needs as well. This goes for him too, if he has school work or any type of project he may want to do, I‘ll make sure she doesn’t disturb him. So we figure out a way to get our tasks done, but we are lacking in our individual self care time. Which seems right now that occurs at night once our daughter is asleep. 🤷🏽‍♀️ There are some days ofcourse where our self care is just being able to take a nap midday or sleeping in. Those are also helpful and not taken for granted! Stay at home mom life is some what like being quarantined. During the week, it’s usually just me and my kiddo at home, until hubs gets home from school. Of course, if I need to go out I can do so freely, and if I wanted to have company over, I can. I don’t have many friends. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I‘m use to staying at home, I don’t go out much. I do very much enjoy when I do though. Being able to have the availability to do so freely is very much missed. 😭

This staying at home 24/7 for weeks to months, and having to work or teach at home during a crisis, a pandemic, is a new thing for pretty much everyone. It’s stressful and there is a lot of anxiety. Who knows when this will end. But until then we have to do the best we can and figure out a routine and make things work to the best of our ability. We can’t be too hard on ourself during this time, we are stressing enough. We have to get use to this norm of social distancing and distant learning, and communicating. Learn and adapt to this new weird new virtual environment of doing things on line, more so now than ever before. There are still people out there working, because they are considered essential and they are putting themselves at risk every time they go to work. Our first responders, and hospital personnel are not able to be with their families, they are out trying to save life’s while risking theirs.🙏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Embrace being at home with your loved ones, even if it gets tiring, frustrating, and difficult to manage at times. You’ll figure things out. 👍🏽Take some time to work on you, do those home projects you didn’t have time for, but now do! We also need to be supportive of our friends and family. Don’t forget to check on them too! Face time them, send a text and see how they are doing. Remember we are all in this, we are ALL staying home! (At least you should be, except when you need to get essentials) Stay properly informed, but don’t over do it. Take a break from the news, too much can be overwhelming. Don’t live in fear, but do your best to keep aware. Stay safe friends and fam! We can only come out stronger 💪🏽during this! 🙏🏽 We got this!