Under the stay-at-home order, we have been doing what we're supposed to do - staying at home except for limited necessary trips to the store and close-to-home recreation. Today is Monday, and I haven't left the neighborhood since Wednesday which was Earth Day. The kids and I rode our bikes on a nearby trail to a gas station and bought ice cream treats. The kids had not been in a store in over a month. I decided it was time for them to start seeing how life has changed outside our home, as many of the things like social distancing and the wearing of face masks are here to stay for the foreseeable future. They have also -to varying degrees- become fearful of getting sick. I'm hoping they will adjust to being cautious without being anxious. Bryan has been taking one kid "out" to lunch each week (drive-thru or pick-up) and we usually get take-out or delivery once a week to support our local restaurants. Bryan did the grocery shopping last week, so I have not driven for almost two weeks, which was the last time I went to a grocery store.
Yes, our world has drastically changed since the beginning of March, but it hasn't all been bad. Here are three things I don't miss about our normal life.
1. Spending 2-3 hours a day driving the van. That's been my average daily routine this school year with Lydia going to the middle school for math in the morning and Brett doing part-time school in Stillwater, plus the normal running kids to sports, piano, and therapy. I don't miss this at all!
2. Speaking of activities, I don't miss rushed evenings! Some days I would have meals prepared by 4:30 ready for a kid or two to grab on their way out the door. Then I'd come home around 8:00 from taking another kid in another direction to a messy kitchen because we didn't have time to clean up. It is so nice to just eat together when the food is ready.
3. Only a true introvert like myself will understand this one. I don't miss obligatory niceties. You know, the conversation you have on the sidelines with Johnny's mom because you're sitting next to each other for 90 minutes, or the exchange of "how-are-yous" at church with someone you don't really have any sincere connections with, or running into someone you know at the coffee shop and feeling obligated to linger in conversation even though you have a million things to get done. I just don't need that much social interaction, and it wears me out in my normal life.
What we are experiencing now is not "normal" and I refuse to call it the "new normal". I'm fully expecting that eventually our life we become too busy again, and I will spend too much time driving and I will feel obligated to converse with a mom at practice - from 6 feet away. And I will welcome it - the sooner, the better! But aspects this collective pause the virus has created have brought respite and perspective.
Maybe our "new normal" can be a better version of our "old normal".
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| Filled tank March 17th! |
I've used even less gasoline than you over the past month! I said that I think it's the first time in my life that I'm going through gasoline faster with my lawn mower than with my minivan. My husband is still commuting to work 100 miles a day so his gas consumption in his car hasn't really changed, but I've only driven my vehicle one time in more than a month. I agree this is not normal. Just like I hope people realize that isolation homeschooling is NOT what homeschooling normally looks like (since most people seem to refer to what is happening now as homeschooling rather than distance learning). And as for the "how are you" thing, honestly I wish our culture would come up with a different greeting. I find myself using it out of habit even though I cannot stand it. It's so meaningless. We all seem to automatically say fine no matter what. There have been times in my life I've particularly loathed it - such as after my brother suddenly died last year. I was NOT fine but of course I'm not going to start telling random people I don't really know what is going on in my life so I just said "fine how are you". I think that question should only be asked by a close friend who actually wants to hear an honest answer not just expecting to hear "fine" or something like that 100% of the time.
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