When I got the comment asking how the COVID-19 outbreak was affecting life in these parts, there wasn’t much to say. It was Thursday morning and the only changes to my day-to-day life were increased hand washing, our dojo being closed, and an extremely light commute. By Thursday afternoon there were rumblings that things might change in the next day or so, and by Friday morning SFUSD, where my kids go to school, officially announced it was moving to distance learning for the two weeks before spring break. My own district followed suit on Friday, but we’d been told to be ready to send home materials the day before.
So Thursday night I taped the spines of 30 new graphic novels so my 7th graders could read and work with them at home for the next two weeks, and decided what to plan for my 8th graders. I knew I had time to figure out my lower level elective classes later. I also started thinking about how I would structure my days with my own kids at home, while I was supposed to be providing distance learning to my students.
This morning I went to Costco and experienced first hand the insanity that is the world right now. It was crazy there, but there was also plenty of everything (Costco is implementing a one-per-membership on toilet paper, paper towels, and water). I found everything I needed, and while it was hard to maneuver in the over-crowded line, I got out of there relatively unscathed.
And now I guess we wait, at home. My son has a stuffy nose and slight cough (both appeared last night before bed) and my daughter suddenly has a sore throat, so we’ll definitely be staying home exclusively for at least a week.
I will say, since schools have closed I feel very differently about “social distancing.” Before it felt like things were pretty much business as usual, since I was going to work where I had contact with hundreds of kids throughout the day. Canceling face-to-face instruction is a significant step, and now I feel very differently about being out in public. Mostly we’ll avoid it unless absolutely necessary. We definitely won’t be seeing either pair of grandparents any time soon.
My husband works for the city supporting night life industries and he’s spent the last two weeks fielding calls from the owners of music venues and other entertainment industries that are having to lay off their workers and are worried about losing their spaces, or their businesses entirely. We’re going to be seeing the repercussions of this in the economy for months, and years, to come.
Thank you so much! Hope you can post during this period of social distance as there will be intense ‘no distance’ within homes and intense isolation for those living alone.
Both families of my grands are doing absolute social distance/isolation for the month that their schools are going to be shut. No playdates/company etc. The 14 year old is NOT HAPPY about this as the county they live in has no known cases (also no testing available so…. and is college town). 14 year old’s friends are all planning parties and sleepovers because their parents are thinking ‘it will not happen here’. Denial is not river. Italy and Spain and France are not indicators of anything other than FOREIGN and NOT HERE. The 3rd grader hasn’t quite got a handle on what this means yet but I know that both grands will have about 4 hrs worth of ‘homeschool’ work to do 5 days a week. It will be tough. 14 year old is self entertaining capable, and lives in larger space with yard. 3rd grader is in smaller SF flat with no yard. 14 year old can use social media and is able to self-regulate tv/electronic stuff. 3rd grader has to have these severely rationed as still gets ‘hooked’, addicted, behavior problems from too much of it … and ‘too much’ is very little in truth.
The 3 parental units: 2 are work from home as their work places are shut. One work from home-er has been confined to bed due to injury all this year and working from bed as a result already. I have been staying with that family 5 days of each week as needed there as mobility aide and now probably as child support. The 3rd can still go to work place ~ provided no public transportation (includes uber, taxi, muni) is used to get there. If that changes, I may return to my home and be isolated here, however both parents have highly intense demanding jobs and will be very needed to be doing real work (12-16 hr days) from home leaving little availablity for hands on parenting (yes, the 3rd grader not the 14 year old.)
Please, everyone, share what is happening where you are and what the restrictions are you are imposing and when.
What about haircuts, libraries, playgrounds, ‘bookgroups’, gyms, rec centers, coffee shops, having housecleaners come? My county places of worship are on social media only as gatherings are limited to 100 or less.
It is different.
We have no *known* cases in my county but we all know testing has been woefully inadequate. And 19 passengers from the Princess cruise ship are being quarantined here. All public schools closed thru at least 3/31 (ours was already going to be closed thru 3/27, and they’re exploring remote schooling although many poorer families may not have devices or internet access.) City run gym, library, etc. closed. Several cities here have declared emergencies. I am experiencing a lot of anxiety as we are older parents with no close relatives or others to step in. We’re going to be staying in with a lot more TV than usual.
Please keep on staying in touch here. It really is helpful to me in controlling my anxiety and maintaining equilibrium. When alone I sometimes find it hard to stop my brain going into disaster dystopian whirlpools and this contact on this site really helps. I am not in worse impacted county in CA (Santa Clara) but it is clearly real where I am and the fact there are no tests isn’t helping. Yes, I am in the group that Gov has asked to self isolate. So even a line or two is appreciated.
Hang in! Stay careful, we hold each others hand in virtual space and support each other. THANK YOU.