If someone had told you in
2019 what 2020 would be like, you’d probably have thought they were crazy.
Imagine your surprise as they
detailed the adjustments you and your family would need to make, the amount of
time you’d spend in lockdown with your kids, the “new normal” of school,
grocery shopping, and connecting virtually with other people.
Yet here we are, ten months
into Covid-19, and most of us have more or less adjusted. Some, like Sydni
Ellis, writing for Popsugar, have actually found things to like about
enforced family time. Ellis has taken comfort in the realization that her
family is more resilient and, most importantly, more flexible than she previously
thought.
Ellis, a mother of two
preschoolers, plans to take this knowledge into post-pandemic times. She
writes: “Next year, I plan on reminding myself that kids are adaptable – Logan
loves to tell me that his favorite restaurant is closed on the inside, but we
can still get some in our cars – it doesn't take much for them to be happy.”
She’s also discovered aspects
of herself and her family that she likes. “I learned my husband secretly loves
ice cream, I'm not-so-secretly terrible at mastering dances invented by
teenagers, and my kids are both obsessed with dressing up like superheroes.
Most importantly, I learned that it's okay to not be perfect.”
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Granted, Ellis admits that,
as a mom of two kids not yet in school, she did not need to worry about
transitioning them to online learning. And, as a parent in the age of iPads,
her workload has been reduced by tech.
It didn’t start out all
hunky-dory. By her estimate, home life was hellish for the first few weeks of
shutdown. But to her extreme good luck and circumstances, her entire family
rolled with things remarkably well: “My kids were happy just by drawing with
markers, playing with stickers and finger-painting on the back porch. Running
through the sprinkler provided hours of entertainment, as did watching movies
inside a pillow fort.”
Getting to this point of “happy,
chill home” was not smooth. Like most of us, she was often not her best self,
but she now realizes the long term value of being present, even under duress
(or maybe especially under duress). “I worried less about being a ‘good’ mom,”
she says, “and focused more on being a ‘present’ mom.”
Now that the light is at the
end of the tunnel, she intends to take some 2020 into 2021. Not a lot, but just
enough.
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