Parenting in Uncertainty: Coronavirus and Pivoting
To pivot: to turn on, or as if on, a central point or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates.
When something like a world pandemic hits, every person has enough to deal with trying to manage the mental load. The rest crowds in: personal financial implications, political climate, lack of support system and isolation procedures.
None of that mentions your family at all. Being a parent while all this is going on increases the challenge that being a parent already is. Everyone spends a lot of energy pointing out how nurses and doctors are the real heroes right now, and that is absolutely true. But it overlooks everyone else.
Pivoting any strategy, whether it’s a parenting strategy, a job strategy (completely converting to digital teaching, or digital event production, or digital anything), or any other life occurrence takes a lot of energy. And the entire world is doing it right now. YOU are a hero.
Even if you don’t feel like one, you’ve continued every day to do your best. Coming up with new ideas for your kids to be occupied while you’re working from home is hard. Feeding everyone who’s begging for a snack every 20 minutes is hard. Never having alone time because your spouse is home and throwing off the schedule is hard. Only grocery shopping and meal planning every two weeks because you’re trying to keep your family healthy is hard.
If it means you don’t post on your blog for awhile, that’s okay. If it means you gain 5 pounds, that’s okay. If it means you let your kids watch more TV, that’s okay. If it means you have an extra G & T tonight, that’s okay. If it means you take a nap every afternoon, that’s perfectly okay. Do what you need to do to get through it. Don’t give yourself a guilt trip.
Here are some resources to help:
Free app Woebot for mental health check-ins
Free app The Tapping Solution for help with anxiety
Facebook Group Friends for Coronavirus Learning Support
Sophia free courses for college credit
Until life evens out a little, enjoy the down time as much as you can. Let your partner know how you need to be supported. Give your kids extra grace. Give yourself extra grace.