I see you mama. You are working hard. Trying to keep up with the high standards that you set for yourself. Trying to juggle working, home schooling, keeping the kids from burning the house down, cooking, cleaning, watching the news, but not too much, making sure you have enough toilet paper and cleaning supplies (we were never able to find hand sanitizer), making sure you stay calm so the kids can stay calm. I see you.
Every parent that I have talked to since quarantine started is feeling the pressure. And now that we are weeks into this, the novelty, if we can even call it that, is wearing off. We are still trying to manage through. How do we keep our kids safe and sane for a month and longer indoors? How do I persuade my 18 month-old to play quietly without me for an hour while I take a conference call? Can we figure out how to explain 3rd grade fractions? Will our kids forget how to read? Are they getting too much screen time? How can I manage having 5 people who need to use the internet at home when we don’t have that many devices or that much bandwidth? Do I need to scrub all of the groceries before I bring them in the house? If I show my team at work that I can’t handle everything the way that I did pre-COVID, then is my job at risk? Will my job be at risk with the decline in the economy and COVID disruption? Those are just the comments from those of us lucky enough to be able to work from home.
This is too much for anyone to handle and it’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed right now. These are strange times with lots of uncertainty. But there are things that we can do t