One thing that the Coronavirus has done is caused families to spend more time with one another. And if I can find one silver lining in all the tragedy that encamps around us, I’d have to say family togetherness has been one of the more positive outcomes from the pandemic.
And while the majority of us cherish the time we get to spend with our households, I realize that one size doesn’t fit all. Unfortunately, there may be some families that are facing real dilemmas by certain individuals in their households having to be around each other 24/7. For situations where family togetherness seems to work in the negative, I truly feel saddened.
When human beings go through challenging times, it helps to have people who you love be in your presence to provide encouragement, support, and love when you need it the most. So, I can’t speak for everyone (only for my household) when I say that I’ve truly been blessed to have family members who’ve been at home with me for several weeks now.
It’s been me and my children up to this point, but now my husband is home with us too. And, it’s such a gift to have them all here. It also saddens me to think of the time when all of them may go back to school and work as usual. But while I say that, I don’t really think it wholeheartedly. I don’t believe that things will go back exactly to the way they were before the start of 2020. I think the advent of COVID-19 pretty much changed the way we’ll function as a society going forward.
But the virus isn’t the focus of this discussion. It just caused the effect of having some quality and much-needed family time that I would never have imagined we would have. And, this time together has actually spoiled me and made it hard to remember what it was like when everyone was spread out here and there with my two sons in school full-time (one of which was working part-time as well) and my husband and daughter working full-time.
They were all spread out throughout the city in their various buildings throughout the day, and I had my fair share of running around that I did for my household as well as for other family members’ households within the week. So, we were coming and going all of the time, until we finally made it back home for the evening. Usually, Junior would get home later than the rest of us, due to his evening college classes.
But everything’s different now. Everyone’s home. And while I’ve spent the better part of this post talking about the fact that I love having everyone home, I’m going to spend the rest of the post discussing the fact that I’m immensely enjoying putting them all to work. I HAVE HELP NOW! WOO HOO!
Yes, one of the basic principles of productivity is getting help when and where you can get it. Isn’t it much better to divide and conquer when it comes to performing household tasks or even professional goals?
Going the road alone can lead to burn-out, slow-down, and give-up. So, I think it best to use your resources if you have resources to use. And when looking at my present condition, I’m feeling pretty fortunate right now.
Aside from providing me with peace of mind (knowing everyone is safe and well), here’s how having all the family members at home is helping me:
- I actually have assistance with the household chores. I might have had a little help before, but now it’s really noticeable. Everyone’s home. So, there are no excuses. There are no “Well, you’re home so you have time to do it.” (even though I was rarely at home all day everyday due to helping other family members outside of my immediate household throughout the week). Or, “I’m too busy with work and school”. (Actually, my son is still working and taking college classes from home, so he is pretty busy. But, his schedule no longer consists of commute time to and from home to school and work or from school to work and back, so his time is more flexible than it used to be.) I absolutely love it! And, I actually can use the help as I’ve added homeschooling to the mix of my to-dos as of late.
- My older adult children (Toodlez and Junior) are able to help me more with Little Man. They’ve been great with providing supervision when my Husband and I are busy doing other tasks, helping to entertain him during his downtime when he’s not homeschooling, making sure he gets outside and exercises, assisting him with homework questions he might have, and getting him something to eat during mealtimes.
- The honey-do list is getting done. (Just kidding. I don’t really have a honey-do list). I’ve never needed one. My Husband is a go-getter. As a matter of fact, it’s really difficult for him to just veg out during his downtime. He’s always got some kind of project going on, where he’s fixing something in or outside of the house or taking on little home improvements items here and there. I’m so thankful that he’s self-motivated like that. My Husband has actually saved our household a lot of money by simply taking the initiative to learn some pretty handy skills and then putting those skills into practice. So, I’m looking forward to seeing him roll out his to-dos before going back to work.
- And, I’m totally going to take advantage of Toodlez’ and Little Man’s creative skills sets, while they’re at home. I’ve already started plugging into their genius and both have been helping me with some project work. You’ll, hopefully, be seeing some of their handiwork here at Degrees of Maternity in the future. So, stay tuned for that.
Now, I want you to look around your present situation and think of areas where you could use a little assistance from time to time and think of who might best fill a gap that’s needed some serious attention — an area where maybe you’re lacking in a particular skill set that someone more knowledgeable could help you with or do for you altogether.
Or, think of that to-do that’s easy enough for anyone to do and then delegate it to the person who has time to do it. Free yourself up to focus on the to-dos that only you can do justice to.
Tip of the Week: While you have the opportunity, split up the work. You’ll find efficiencies in getting more done, with less wear and tear on your part, and in a fraction of the time it would normally take.
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