Posts
 |
| Copyright: Elizabeth Prisco |
A look at how people are coping with schooling and education in
this global pandemic, and how it has affected students, parents and teachers
around the world.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth is a stay-at-home
mom of two children (ages 4 and 6) in Connecticut, USA. She has previously
taught English as a second language in South Korea and is also a talented and
witty artist (check out her Quarantine cartoons on her Lizzy in a Tizzy Facebook page). She has also discovered a newfound love of breadmaking.
Her husband is a
commercial pilot and the family includes a grumpy dog and 13 chickens. In the past few days,
while interviewing Elizabeth for this piece, her husband has taken a three
month paid leave of absence from his job, so will be joining the home bubble full-time.
Elizabeth first
became aware of Covid-19 and its effects on health and daily life around
mid-February, from friends who teach at schools in China. She immediately
purchased supplies and extra groceries in preparation for staying at home for
an extended time, and asked her husband to buy her a 3M respirator.
It looks
intimidating, she says, like something you would wear while cooking meth.
“My husband uses
one to clean our fireplace and do woodwork and I wanted something more
effective than the ones folks used all too frequently in Asia. That night, the president made an announcement about masks and they were stripped clean from all the shelves. He bought the last one."
Her children are no
longer in school and the family is getting acclimatised to a distant learning
platform. Her daughter was in pre-kindergarten so the big change for her is no
longer having twice-weekly opportunities to be independent and socialise. Her
son was in kindergarten and receives a daily schedule and video from his
teacher. Elizabeth says they balance her son’s schoolwork with a lot of free
time and outside time, and that both children are NOTICEABLY (her stress, not
the author’s) less moody and overall very happy to be home.
Mom has had to go
cold turkey on daily yoga studio visits, which she previously viewed as her
sanity saver. Although she says she is perfectly capable of doing a self-guided,
online or video class, she hasn’t yet been in the mood to do so.
“That’s on my to-do
list for this week as my patience is very thin if I don’t exercise. I have
found that trying to sort all this out at once is just not realistic, so slowly
establishing a schedule and boundaries will be best.
Elizabeth says most
of her friends are also stay-at-home mothers of young children who seem
stressed by the unknown longevity of the Covid crisis, the lack of breaks and
now having to be mom, teacher and spouse 24/7.
Living in a small
rural town, people are able to exercise outside while adhering to safe
distancing and trips to the grocery store are the only forays allowed. While
her husband was still flying, he had to show his ID to cross state lines to
commute to New York for his work.
“Being so close to
New York City is very scary,” she says. “We have people from NYC coming to our
hospitals now and lots of them are also flocking to their vacation homes here –
which is spreading the virus.”
As her sanity saver
in this new normal, Elizabeth gives herself and her children mandatory quiet
time, and finds caring for her chickens and gardening without anybody speaking
to her is “very, very refreshing”
“I listen to
podcasts. Draw. Sit in silence and look out into the woods of my property. Any
activity where nothing is expected from me at that moment.”
 |
| Copyright: Elizabeth Prisco |
She sees a hidden
blessing amidst the panic and fear being felt across the world.
“I have been
reminded of what is really important,” she says. “What is a need versus a want.
Getting back to the basics of how important time is, being with those you love
and the simple things in life.
“Don’t spend your life worrying in a crisis –
spend it believing everything will be okay.”
No comments:
Post a Comment