Parenting During Covid-19

We have been home for 115 days. That's 115 days in which we have been trying to work from home while caring for our son. 115 days of no parks, no Early Year Center, no daycare, and no socializing with other kids, and our son is cracking.

We have tried a schedule, we have taken as much time off as we can, and we opened up our self isolation to the grandparents, aunt and uncle around day 60, but we still struggle. As long as one of us struggles, we all do, and when the smaller of us struggles we all break. Our son is sweet one minute and losing his mind the next 2 hours. Last week he spent all week refusing to look at us. I've cried every week the last few weeks and right now I want to cry every day.

Our son needs socializing, he needs routine, he needs to interact with other kids, and he needs more time than we can give him. He also needs less TV but if we do less than the 2 hours a day we currently do, then we can't work. This is hard, and we know we have it easy compared with other families. What's going to happen next? What's going to happen with schools in September? How long is this going to last? No one has the answers and we are reaching breaking point but we do what we have to do, we survive, we take it one day at a time and we keep going little by little.

If you are on this boat, you are not alone. I have been remembering my first weeks as a parent and the many times I said "I'm not a stay at home mom", right now I say it in my head almost daily. I'm keeping afloat, I'll keep going, I hope and wait.

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