Day 32: One month down
It was March 16 the kids stayed home from school for the first time, wondering what their future would hold. Would there be classes? Exams? Graduation?
After the first week, CTR Catholic launched its distance learning platforms and the kids got to work. Brooke learned she wouldn’t have diploma exams but would graduate and – even better – that her school would still hold a ceremony and prom, though the dates may not be what we thought they were.
They all hit the books and adjusted fairly seamlessly to learning remotely.
Three weeks later, they got a rest from the new routine with Easter break and it’s been…interesting.
The older three tend to sleep well past 10 (at the earliest) every morning, and that makes focusing on work a bit challenging for Mom because five-year-old Hannah wants attention. Normally during a school break she would be left at home with her siblings, who would be forced to get out of bed and care for her when I left for work at 8-ish.
Not going to lie – she’s been watching a lot of TV first thing in the morning because I just need to get stuff done.
The rest of her day gets better. There's a firm "TV off at 10:30" rule and then it’s time to get chores done and find more active or creative endeavours. By this time, older children usually begin making an appearance and alleviating some of the entertainment pressure from my shoulders.
Hannah has been spending countless minutes outside, riding her scooter around the driveway and along the sidewalk in front of our house, drawing with chalk on the pavement and making up her own little imaginary games. Sometimes I take a break to sneak a peek at my little girl talking to herself outside and can’t help but smile.
I don’t know how I’m going to get her to settle back down into school routines when Monday rolls around.
Today, she took an empty Easter basket out to the yard to collect rocks. She found more than a few, and of course they had to come into the house. I’m trying to convince her to paint them and turn each one into a different flower or animal, something cute and – let’s face it – time-consuming.
The more she has to do the better, to occupy her time while the older kids do their own things – a 1,500-piece puzzle, or conquering video games they don’t always have a chance to play. I’m letting those screen-time hours slide this week because, as far as I’m concerned, they’ve earned it.
Everyone is talking about how difficult it is to be cooped up in their houses, unable to go out and recreate like they normally would or even go to work, how frustrating or anxiety-inducing simple stops at the grocery store can be, how they miss the way things were and the concept of “normal.”
But consider for a moment the children (won’t somebody please think of the children?!), who are facing the same challenges and the same feelings of loss and disappointment and frustration, but who also lack most of the basic reasoning capacity their parents possess – particularly the youngest among us.
Hannah knows there’s a virus and that’s the reason everything has changed and things like school and sports and other fun activities came to an abrupt halt. That’s the extent of her knowledge on the subject (aside from knowing to wash her hands all the time and keep her distance from other people), because she doesn’t read the news and couldn’t comprehend it if she did.
Older children – mine, at least – are able to have conversations to help them navigate this new reality. It’s become a frequent topic around our house, later in the evening when the little ones are in bed or when they’re out of earshot.
This week especially, without being preoccupied by school, they’ve taken to talking about it more – sometimes it’s a question, sometimes an opinion or comment about something they’ve read or seen online, and sometimes just a joke (memes can be a great distraction). We often talk about how we’re feeling about things, and I think that’s helping them (and all of us) cope and grasp an understanding of this new world.
I applaud the children out there. As proud as I am of my own for how they’re handling this, I’m sure there are many who are showing the same bravery in the face of these strange pandemic times. They’re all adapting to a new temporary school system, finding out they won’t be hitting the spring sport fields, cancelling birthday parties, missing their friends and teachers and the routine of what we consider “normal life.”
This month has been a wild ride, but every day I think we’re getting a little more courage, a little more balance as we take on the crest of the wave, and hope it breaks before we do.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section for the latest local and national news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.
