Saturday, April 4, 2020

Quarantine for Kids

I’m in the unique position of not only being an essential employee but also having not only my wife working at home in addition to (somehow) keeping Little Miss Sunshine at home versus her normal Monday through Friday life at her preschool. As adults, we tend to roll with the punches:  Caeli Elise, not so much. Her days have devolved from a regimented 7 am wake-up to get dressed, a quick breakfast, and a car ride to school where she does the normal things pre-kindergarteners do:  exercise, lesson, centers, playtime, lunch, nap, snack, playtime, and line up to either go home or to aftercare to a free flow kind of day. She knows something is going on and misses playing with her friends, but I think she has a basic understanding of why she hasn’t gone back to school. Instead, Mama and Daddy school [she’s 5; don’t ask me about an AMI plan] consists of migrating from one room to the next and developing new skills in addition to nurturing her love for all activities science- and math-related. Don’t judge me, Caeli can sit there with my phone or the TV watching Ryan’s World and some of the other educational shows on YouTube when both of us run out of stuff for her to do.



I also don’t want to pay tuition for a child who hasn’t gone to school since just before spring break. Maybe that planned summer break with Grandma becoming a reality before kindergarten begins as we are kind of privileged in having a local grandparent who wants to spend time with her only granddaughter.

Kids in Caeli's age range -- between 4 and 6 or 7 -- represent a unique parenting challenge during self-quarantine. They are old enough to understand something is wrong -- that their lives have been disrupted -- but not the level of seriousness, or how long the disruption might last. At the same time, many of them are not old enough to have intensive school assignments to routinize long portions of their days -- or to play immersive video games that knock hours off the schedule.


Instead, she wants to play ALL DAMN DAY LONG. Because this is what she is used to – the bouncing to and from one activity to the next – it also presents a unique challenge:  Cleaning up before we do the next thing. One day, Caeli decided that she wanted to play with Play-Doh during the morning across the kitchen table from my wife who is dutifully checking email and performing whatever tasks that get sent over through whatever software system her department is currently using. As soon as lunchtime comes around, she hops out of her chair and picks up a loaf of bread and a half-empty bottle of Johnny Fair cane syrup [Sidebar:  If you’re from the country, you know Johnny Fair is the best syrup and where to get it, bar none. Depending on how one may categorize Malvern, Arkansas, it does fit into the country narrative in the context of my writings]. Anyway, there is Play-Doh everywhere:  Of course, it’s on the table, underneath her chair on the floor, and even on the paper plate we planned on using for bread and syrup! I become a one-man tour de force, cleaning machine wiping down table space, the seat, and making sure Caeli wash her hands before she puts one slice of white bread to syrup. I’m just grateful she doesn’t want another package of chicken-flavored Ramen noodles.

I also have to give a huge thank-you to Governor Asa Hutchinson for the daily updates pertaining to the coronavirus for the general public to understand how serious this virus is to our most vulnerable members of our state – the older citizens and those with chronic conditions (not from smoking the chronic) such as cancer, asthma, and Type I diabetes. While I did not vote for him in either of his winning campaigns and would have remained in Connecticut had he defeated Mike Beebe in 2006, you have to salute a man who genuinely loves Arkansas in spite of the Trumpers that hate anything resembling progress coming out of the woodwork since 2008 and a Tea Party which has dissipated since January 20, 2017 – Black people know why but again, this is not the appropriate forum for my political opinions.

All kids need at least a half-hour outside to play; due to us not having enough information of the COVID-19, we’ve been reluctant to letting Caeli play with the other neighborhood kids…until Wednesday. Our only child was losing it having to stay cooped up inside all day long until she asked to play basketball. All I had to do is park Bubba Gump (the nickname for my 2nd generation Ram pickup) in the street, and we had a clear driveway to shoot baskets. After a few bounces, it seemed like every kid on our side of the subdivision magically came outside to play, each with varying boundaries of where and how far to go. Hint:  They went only as far as we parents could see them, or in Caeli’s case, two houses down in either direction. If a car turned out of the old cul-de-sac toward our set of houses, the kids have been taught not only to yell “Car!” but also to stand on one side of the street until the car passes by. For some, outdoor recess was a regular part of the day; for others, it became a treat.


Kids are generally unaware of personal space particularly those who are preschool age. Having to endure quarantine – or better, giving Little Miss Sunshine a hula hoop to wear around the house – presents a lesson for her to not only recognize others’ boundaries as she acknowledges her own little bubble is not for everyone to enter.

As we adapt to a whole new world that will shape our children’s outlooks and potentially his and her futures - one that is strange even by 2020 standards – a few takeaways will come from this pandemic:
1.      Many of the things we deem vital will either be streamlined or become irrelevant.
2.      People who treat the least of these unfairly will reap the consequences for decades. We see you, Hobby Lobby.
3.      More churches will have to accept a seismic shift in how worship services are conducted, particularly in the Black church. This means reaching the congregation where it was unthinkable just a month ago; the sick-and-shut-in members really need the availability of a full worship experience not limited to the sermon or using tithes and offering apps alone. Some traditions are going to have to be placed on the back burner until a vaccine is found, and perhaps a few can remain in the dustbins of the past.
4.      As the Trump Administration has consistently shown, there are three sides to a story:  Your side, my side, and the truth. Research (and thorough study) will be paramount moving forward in an age which the media is distrusted greatly as a result of our First Amendment rights being eroded before our very eyes. In other words, expect to question everything.
5.      For those who commute to work:  Do you really need to be there now that working from home has become a thing? It also blurs the lines between work and life; setting definite hours will be a must.
6.      Will our kids still want to become actors, professional athletes, entertainers, or will they have a change of heart for a life of service toward others, such as teachers, nurses, small business owners, etc. as unfettered capitalism and white supremacy conspire to destroy the world once and for all? We understand survival of the fittest, but why are some of the companies in the best financial conditions and not paying taxes begging for bailouts and stimuli to please their shareholders? The people who make stupid money doing little to nothing except living on inherited wealth and the backs of labor are not the heroes to emulate.
7.      Secondhand stores are really going to struggle for a while, but like any other period in recent American history, they will come back sharper than before.
8.      Family matters. Period.
9.      We are going to become some great cooks and carpenters when this is said and done.
10.  As tech-savvy as we have become, there may be a few good ol’ fashioned things we might have to relearn letter writing and good manners, chiefly among others. I won’t dare become above using cassettes to listen and record music – Generation Xer here – yet the babies will not understand the struggle of catching the radio at the perfect moment or later, lugging around those 100+ count CD cases, carefully curated and the visceral reaction when an album is either scratched or missing.

One may surmise this as a survival of the fittest or Darwinism at work; therefore, most of us will be fine. Do check on the community elders and your parents as we are now navigating their health and wellness in addition to our children’s upbringings and our own adult relationships. 



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