It’s been a while since I posted here. Life gets busier and busier when you have children and my life is no exception. I have written down many notes in the past months with things I wanted to share here, but life got even busier and still nothing got posted. But times have changed quite drastically. For all of us.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing nearly all of us around the world to stay home. To live our whole life in our own house. Work, sleep, eat and play all at the same place. With the same people every day. And yes, we can do this. I read somewhere ‘Our grandparents were called to war, we are called to sit on our couch,’ and that is a very good way of putting things in perspective. We have internet, we have Netflix, we have so much. So of course we can do this. And we will.
But it’s not easy. Especially not when you have children under the age of 4. I talked with many fellow parents and the ones with young children are having a hard time. And we are only in week 1 here in Brussels. Those children need attention most of the day. Many of them can’t play on their own and you can only get some time for yourself when they sleep. (Unless you have other children that are not sleeping then of course.) But when you work from home you have to cram all your work into that little time slot. Or do it after they have gone to bed, which again means you don’t get time for yourself.
So yes, it’s not easy. Some days will be harder than others. I just want to say, please, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It is what it is. You can not do it all. And that is okay. Be happy with the things you do manage.
Just want to add one more thing. Of course there are also positive side effects to these worldwide lock-downs. Spending more time as a family and having less input and distractions from others will surely lead to stronger bonds between each other. But that is for another post. I will try to share in the coming weeks how we are coping with the lock down and social distancing in Brussels.