Tag: #StayathomeDad

  • The New Normal: The Job of Staying Home

    I over slept this morning, by thirty minutes. In this world we live in, it felt like I lost the entire morning. I was a half hour late on getting things started around the apartment.

    I had to quickly suck down a cup of coffee, shower, change and winter up so I could walk the dog in the twenty-degree cold that was this morning. Hurry, hurry, hurry, because I still had to get the kid ready for remote school, and when I got back home with the dog, the kid informed me that I don’t have a job, and need to get one.

    “You’re my job,” I said.

    “That’s not a real job,” The kid told me.

    Ah… the curse of the stay at home parent; no one thinks it’s a real job, even your kid.

    Is this the effect of capitalism on our society? If the endeavor does not earn capital, does it have a value in our society? I mean, this is not a new question, as I remember hearing this being asked when I was a little kid. That would mean, that over thirty-five years, stay at home parenting is still not viewed as a productive job that has a value.

    Or is this a matter of roles in a household? As in, the wife and I have always been working since the kid has been born. The child has only known us to be a family where mom and dad both have jobs outside of the home, and then share the responsibilities of all the domestic tasks. With the world turn upside down, did we ever take the time to explain to the kid what the new make-up of our family roles will be?

  • Confession: Reading Failure

    I have a confession to make. Awhile back, I said that I would read The Stories of John Cheever this fall. Well… as we are now clearly in the middle of winter, I have to admit that I did not read The Stories of John Cheever. In fact, I only read the first story in that book. I looked at that volume every evening on the nightstand as I got into bed, and I would say to myself, “Tomorrow, I’ll get back to it.”

    Yup, I failed at this personal goal. I mean, I didn’t even come close. I wish I could say that I got caught up reading another book, but that isn’t true either. Sadly, my fall and winter reading progress is pretty disappointing.

    And if I am to be fully honest with myself, I only finished three books in all of 2020.

    I’m not saying this to garner sympathy, or to make excuses. Its more that I want to identify what isn’t working. You can’t write if you don’t read.

    What had brought this about is that I am now teaching my daughter how to read, and I want to instill a love of reading. The best way I know to do this is by example, as that is what my parents did for me. It’s not that they told me to read, or made me; reading is what they did for enjoyment.

    Gotta get my shit together. For all of us.

  • SLEDDING!!!

    We went sledding yesterday. Me and the kid, that is. The wife and I bought a two-person sled on Sunday, when we saw that we were gun’na get a real heavy snow storm for the next 48 hours. Yesterday, Tuesday, the snow let up so we were able to make it to the local park which had a nice gentle hill kids could sled down.

    The kid was beside herself, bubbling over in excitement with the opportunity to experience sledding. She was full of courage marching up the hill, as I followed behind her with the sled. When she got to the top, her determination did not waver, but she wanted to make sure that I would go down with her. She rode in front as I pushed us off very slowly, and then used my feet as brakes to make sure we didn’t go too fast for her. Her response at the end of the ride was, “I want to do it again. This time by myself.”

    And she was off.

    Though she did grab me a few times to ride down with her, she pretty much was off on her own adventure of sledding the hill, trying to go faster and faster, and dodging people and trees. The squeals of joy, and that deep belly laugh of nervous energy of having survived the fastest sledding, only to see if she could go even faster, pretending that she was flying in her spaceship.

    It did feel like the world was “normal” for an hour. Just some kids having fun in the snow.

  • Covid Test Results, And Thinking About Schools

    I got my results yesterday afternoon, and I am negative for Covid. Turns out that I just have a cold. I won’t even get into the fact that I somehow have a cold. How did I get a cold when I am social distanced, wear a mask, and wash my hands all the time? But, whatever.

    With all of this going on, the wife and I started talking about the shit situation we are all in due to Covid. And we are again started talking about sending our kid to school. I agree 100% that remote school is not what is best for the education of children. The kid would be better served in a classroom, with other students and teachers. We are lucky that I can be the dedicated parent to make sure the kid stays on top of her lessons, and also gets an opportunity to explore new subjects. I know that not every family has the luxury that we have.

    Now, I also understand where teachers are coming from. I wouldn’t be comfortable with teaching children without a vaccine, and until I got one, I think I would like to remote teach as well. A teacher’s health is just an important as their students’ wellbeing. There must be some balance.

    I wish the vaccine rollout had been handled better, and I do hope the Biden people do a better job of it. All teachers need to be vaccinated as soon as possible. I also think, and truly hope, that everyone will hold teachers in a higher appreciation, and pay them what they are worth.

    I know we are a long way from being over this disease, but I think we are getting closer to being able to believe that a light in this tunnel may exist.

  • Getting Covid Tested

    A strange thing happened to me late in the morning, yesterday; I felt like I had a cold. I felt fatigued, had a stuffy nose, and there was a scratchy feeling in the back of my throat. I hadn’t felt symptoms like this in over a year, and it really threw me off.

    In the olden days, I would get at least one cold a year, and it usually happened after the kid got sick. The last time I remember feeling sick was around New Year’s 2019/20, and that was from a cold that was going around the office. Since Covid started, and the kid has been out of school, we have adopted a healthy regimen of hand washing, mask wearing, and keeping out distance. What this has produced is an epically long time since anyone has been sick in our home.

    So, as this “cold” feeling kept increasing in me over the course of the day, I was a little dumbfounded how I could be sick, as no one else in our home is. Odds are that it is just a cold, but the reality is that I am the one in the family that runs all of the errands, and as such, if there is a chance that this could be Covid, I should find out as soon as possible, and not endanger anyone else in the neighborhood.

    I had to go get tested.

    Fortunately, there is a City run medical center in our neighborhood, and I headed over for a test. This would be my second time being at this location to get tested. I was pretty surprised that there wasn’t a line; just five of us waiting. Also, having been though before for a test, I was in and out pretty quick. Total time there, maybe fifteen minutes.

    Now, I am in the limbo of waiting for the test result. I actually feel better this morning, but I know if it is Covid, that really doesn’t mean anything. I have to wait, and that does drive me crazy. I can’t run the family errands, and I just have to sit around. I am sure it is nothing, and I am acting out of caution, but I really don’t want to think about if I did get it.