Once
I ventured outside and around other people for significant periods of time in
the late spring and early summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, I often saw new
parents. These young couples had usually protected their infants behind
see-through plastic coverings over strollers, or underneath blankets draped
over Baby Bjorns or slings. Parents with toddlers in parks and outdoor spaces
even attempted to keep tiny kids masked, with varying degrees of success.
My
heart went out to all of them. Although my “new parent” days were two decades
ago, I vividly remember the intensity, the worry, and the heightened sense of
all the potential danger of the world, danger you generally don’t process if
you’re not responsible for a baby. These newbies have to deal with all of that,
now combined with the stress of Covid-19 protocols, the ever-evolving
precaution list, the uncertainty, and the judging eye of fellow parents who
might not share certain opinions about what is and is not safe. I honestly
cannot imagine doing all of that – the usual worries and the pandemic worries -at the same time.
READ MORE: New moms making friends with other new moms
Yet
writer and PR professional Katy Fabrie is doing just that, and she not only
makes it sound doable, but occasionally enjoyable. In her PopSugar essay,
Fabrie doesn’t shy away from detailing a meltdown upon realizing she can’t show
her new daughter her favorite bakery – an outburst due, she says, to postpartum
hormones – and she says, yes, sleep deprivation is real, and hard, especially
when trying to maintain social distancing ordinances. But, according to her: “I
think I was able to appreciate the little joys because the
early days were so hard. The simple moments of levity were crucial reprieves
from the drumbeat of responsibility.”
For
Fabrie and her husband, the deprivation of the pandemic has given a lot of
perspective: now, just getting a stroller opened and out the door between
feeding times is a triumph; a family walk becomes an event. She even
anticipates looking back on the Covid-19 pandemic with nostalgia.
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