We’re all adjusting to our new normals, this upside down world of suddenly being at home 24/7 with kids and spouses. Many of us are scrambling to figure out how to homeschool, work from home, and keep siblings from drop-kicking each other many, many times throughout the day. This is the wild, wild west of parenthood. So, I decided to use my website as a place to share stories from the trenches and lessons learned as we figure this thing out.
Yesterday afternoon (which felt like a solid 80,000 minutes from the time I woke up), I heard Olivia yell from upstairs, “Mommy!! Nora has pepperoni in her pajama drawer!”
Did I hear that right? Or was I hallucinating? Possibly.
I went upstairs to find that, in fact, our four-year-old took it upon herself to take a bag of turkey pepperoni out of the fridge, head to her room, and quietly eat half of it. The other half she tucked into her drawer.
I told her that we don’t eat pepperoni in our rooms, and we most certainly don’t put the leftovers in our dresser. She looked at me with sweet, wide eyes and simply said, “But I was hungry.” (I can already tell she’s going to be someone’s super fun roommate in college.)
Point is, things are going to get weird when we’re spending every minute at home together. My preschooler tried to create a charcuterie plate in her bedroom. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s cheese in the sock drawer.
We all need our space to just be, which is a challenge. (Some social distance from our own families is necessary - AMIRIGHT?) Especially with small kids. (Have you seen this? It made me cry of laughter.) So, we’re going to take it one day at a time and one idealistic color coded schedule at a time (newsflash: my children don’t care about the schedule!). But, focusing on the positives helps: we got outside in the sun, wore comfy clothes all day, learned how to make a zombie taco, and doodled with Mo Willems. The other 10 hours…. were tough. ;)
I would love to hear your tips and favorite resources for staying sane and keeping your children busy.
