In the beginning, all was well. I was excited. After all, we are “staying safe” and we have been given an opportunity to truly to reconnect, decompress, and re-set our family. You CAN’T control your circumstances; you CAN control your response.
And then it just kept going.
Baking was fun at first, but now I can’t wear real pants. The daily kid schedule I meticulously made is being ignored. I now insist that someone other than myself prepare a meal. One of my kids served up a mango and some cookies the other night, and it was delicious. Don’t get me wrong; I love everyone who is thriving with family Tic-Tok dances and theme dinner nights. I really do have the best intentions at the start of every day, but it somehow ends with someone finding me wearing the same clothes I had on yesterday and yelling “mind your business!” when they ask if I was REALLY crying at the Tiger King. (All those poor caged tigers; they have feelings too, you know.) I create a quarantine rule and my kids find a loophole.
I think I gave up at, “You said no computer games until school work is done, this is an Xbox.” or maybe it was at: “You said all I had to do was get out a book every day, you didn’t say I couldn’t watch YouTube behind it.”
My husband has also given up on trying to persuade me to quit online shopping. What is coming today? I have no freaking clue. It is so exciting!
But, despite my kids celebrating Amazon Christmas with me everyday, and clearly not having to follow any norms, there have been several knock down drag-out fights. There is ALWAYS something. I am resigned to the fact that if they put a purchase limit on Hot Cheetos, my house will turn into a macabre domestic remake of the Purge once my head hits the pillow each night. The youngest is sneaky and fast. I’m sure he’ll be fine.
Listen, no one is truly pulling this off perfectly; I don’t care what Instagram shows. It isn’t perfect. But it is OK. You are OK. It is all in how you look at it, isn’t it?
General Musings of a Gen Xer 