Our lives right now are all about staying home as much as possible, keeping our family and ourselves safe, and trying to contain our worry in a worrisome time. H4TG staff are right there with you trying to figure out how to navigate this new daily (temporary) normal! We’d like to share with you some of the ideas that have worked for us when it comes to de-stressing, figuring out how to work from home efficiently, managing kids, working in some sort of fun time, and more.
When the news first broke about the 180-degree shift all of our lives would take as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, I was devastated. Of course, it didn't help that I decided to cope (at first) by making a digital scrapbook of my child's artwork from daycare. I held items up one by one, telling my husband she wouldn't get the chance to do various things and that the 2020 digital scrapbook would be blank.
But as the days went on and the reality of the situation began to sink in, our 180 turned out to be anything but devastating. I look around our home and I see my daughter's finger paint masterpiece hanging on the fridge and her carefully curated sticker montage sitting on her little table. There are tiny cars scattered across the rug in her playroom and 7 different stuffed bunnies sitting in her tepee. We each have dedicated offices in the house with hidden tricks to help offer inspiration to a soon-to-be 2-year-old. I have finger puppets and my husband has a random assortment of items in his drawers to help entertain her. She runs around and goes about her day not knowing what is going on. She laughs, makes silly faces, and shouts out the new words she is learning. She attempts to count everything and claps for herself after doing so. She blows kisses throughout the day and runs over to give us hugs.
So how am I coping? I am coping by looking at life through the eyes of my daughter. I know this is temporary and that we will all get to some semblance of normal one day, but for now we are together and we are safe.
-Victoria Riley, H4TG Director of Program + Operations