Lexi, William & Kate,
Deep breaths are things I often remind myself to do. This week was really, really hard for me and felt I was very close to breaking down. Work is crazy busy right now and the lack of routine is making things a bit challenging. It felt like everything was just unraveling. You three kids were running wild and doing whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. Monday afternoon, I came outside to find you had rattled through an entire box of popsicles. You each ate three popsicles one after another, without asking. Toys, dishes and clothes were scattered throughout the house and the attitude, whining and talking back was out of control and we needed to make changes.
First was the toys. Anything that wasn’t picked up off the floor before bed time became mine. After lots of warnings about picking things up, toys were still all over the place when bedtime came. There were some big tantrums thrown as a result, and I picked up an entire bin of toys that became mine until you could go for a week with all toys being put away each night. But, I haven’t had to do it again yet. You have picked things up every night.
Next was having Daddy or I be near you guys at all times and not having both of us try and work at the same time. This allows one of us to actually focus on work and not be distracted by your constant interruptions. This mostly means Daddy has you for the days and I have you guys at night, since I’m in meetings all day.
Next was sticking to the punishments for talking back, doing things without asking and lying. Lots of timeouts were given and Lexi lost TV for the week for lying about the popsicles and blaming it on Luke.
This isn’t perfect and we still need to work on some sort of routine to help make our days more predictable and figure out a better schedule of work for Daddy and I. But, it is a start.
Considering we are 2 months into quarentene, it feels like you guys are pretty unaffected by it. You definitely prefer going to school and learning from your teachers versus us. You have also made some comments like ‘It feels weird to be driving in a car Mom. We don’t really ride in the car anymore.’ You haven’t been into a store since before we went to Florida. Most stores are asking only one person from a family shops and some stores don’t even allow people under the age of 16 inside. Occasionally, Kate will request that she wants to come to the store with me and says, ‘The Virus is all gone away now. I can come with you’. And William refers to it as the Corony Virus. But given all of the changes that you have gone through, you seem to roll through each day unaffected. You love to play with each other more than ever and have even taught Kate how to play your ‘stories’ and rarely, if ever, complain about not being able to do something because of the virus.
As far as the macro-economy goes–over 36 million people have filed for unemployment as businesses have been forced to temporarily close. More than 80,000 people have died in the United States–with more than 80% of them being 80+ years old. Children have been pretty unaffected–meaning they show very mild symptoms or no symptoms. Our official stay-at-home order started March 27th and is expected to lift May 18th as most business have put plans together to re-open in what the government deems a safe way. This mostly means a limited number of people in stores, closed or limited dressing rooms, employees and customers wearing masks and truly going to a store for a given purpose and not to just shop and browse.
One of the most challenging elements of this whole situation is knowing what to believe and how to navigate as a result. Most of the news outlets are telling the narrative that everyone’s life is at risk, which is different than what the actual numbers reflect. Doctors and people that have different opinions or data than what is being shared in the news are silenced. They post something on social media and their posts are removed in what is being stated as a ‘content violation’. Yet nobody can explain what a content violation is? Or why is it a content violation? Are individuals not allowed to have and share different opinions? There are facts out there stating the US was funding the research of the lab where this virus came from in China. There are rumors out there that big pharma companies are behind this. Politicians are taking advantage of this situation by trying to work their personal agendas into bills that need to pass. Then, there are people who won’t see anyone and think they are going to die if they get this virus, which they might, but pretty unlikely based on the numbers being reported. Then, there are people who think this whole thing is completely over-exaggerated and think we should just continue to operate as we normally do. It is confusing and really hard to make decisions on what is OK and what isn’t OK to do.
Hopefully, our stay-at-home order will get lifted next week and we can start to test the waters by opening businesses up and seeing people more freely and pray our medical systems have prepared enough that they can support the individuals that need the medical assistance.
Love,
Mama
Peanut Smiles 