A mother's tale during COVID-19

How do we, as parents, come up for air during this time?

- Por Sarah Shaffer

How do we keep our heads balanced, keep optimism and strength, when nothing seems balanced anymore?

This is my tale as a mother, as a lover of the wild and free outdoors, as a wife, as a human, as a woman. This is my way of finding steady footing during a time of worldly chaos.

Most during this time I think of my relationship with my only child, my daughter, who is 6. She is bright, kind and joyous.

I think of how she shouldn’t have to experience such a scary and poignant time in our lives, in everyone in the entire world’s lives.

How do I balance the task of explaining to her why she can’t go to school, why she can’t play with friends, without scaring her about the big bad things in the world?

Sometimes, I hold and hug her and kiss her, and other times after a long day of homeschooling by day and working by night, I just want to cry from feeling burnt out, exhausted and the longing for a date with my husband, even if it’s just in the backyard.

How do we, as parents, come up for air during this time?

I have decided we don’t come up for air. We cope, and we all have our own methods for coping.