Month: March 2020

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COVID quarantine

I’m not under quarantine, but it’s looking increasingly likely that I will be WFH every day in the near future along with R. So I’ve been thinking a lot about what a functional schedule will look like, both under that scenario and if day cares are closed.

In a world where daycare is open:

– Morning routine: this would stay pretty much the same. Wake up, work out, play with baby, drop her off.

– Once coming back, would log-in to work and work. Probably do some house chores on my break, or mini-workouts, meditation, and other screen-free breaks. Maybe a walk sometimes.

– Pick up baby, have regular evening routine. I think also turning off phones/laptops/etc and then not logging back in would be essential to maintaining some normalcy.

If daycare is closed, I would think R and I would work in shifts. First, we’d probably have to move the desk from the living room to the baby’s room. Then, we would have to fold up the futon every day and cover it with a bedspread and it would become the zone to take calls (if multiple people were working at once).

One of us would work from 6:30 or so (when the baby wakes up and vacates her room) until 12:30 or so when the baby goes down for a nap. From 12:30-2:30 we’d both work or socialize or do whatever. Post-nap, we’d switch the on-call parent. We’d probably still want to have a family dinner and bedtime routine so at 5:00/5:30 both parents would stop working and we’d have dinner, etc. If needed, a parent could work again after 7pm (bedtime) but ideally not to maintain a separation of work. The morning working parent would have a longer stretch, so we might alternate who is in that role everyday. And I think, to the extent needed, we would have to be really flexible around work calls.

If S comes to stay with us, you could do three shifts but I’m not sure how that would work. From 6 until 5, you have 11 hours of baby time that one person can cover. So each person could spend 4 hours with the baby and 7 hours or so working. The shifts would be 6-10, 10-2, 2-5 for baby. One person would work 6-2, one would work 10-5, and one would work 6-10 and 2-5.

Now I imagine living in a country with effective federal guidance and proactive testing efforts…

 

 

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March

It’s March! And super Tuesday. I am still rooting for my #1 (Liz!) and have a dream where there is a contested convention and she gets the nomination, and then Stacey Abrams is the VP. A girl can wish.

Life is holding pretty steady. There is a big coronavirus scare happening (the first NYC school closed) and we have done nothing to prepare. I’m not that concerned about it, mostly because it doesn’t affect babies much.

Here are things I’ve been thinking about:

  • daily habits and routines (this is like a constant focus area for my mind, I’m not sure why)
  • how nice our group of friends is, and how grateful I am to have so many close friends in walking distance of our apt and a sister who takes the train over every weekend to hang out with us
  • having another baby…
  • this summer and how to organize the weekend so we can go to the beach
  • working 80% time for 100% pay for meeting 100% of job expectations (I read a very, very interesting quote about this and have been thinking a lot about it)
  • the racism that was well alive and kicking during the civil rights movement and how it was often in direct coordination with the police and state, so you could murder someone, brag about it, and even today it may be un-prosecuted
  • how to not touch my face. I have been working on this (see coronavirus scare) and it is SO HARD. It takes a lot of self-control.
  • how to better organize our crazy bed situation (one futon being used a bed, one full-size mattress and box spring on the floor being used as a bed), one full-size mattress on a bed frame not being used, and a crib. And how to “solve” this problem in a way that is sustainability for the various iterations of beds and bedrooms we’ll need in the next decade or so.

I haven’t been in the habit of doing monthly check-ins or making formal goals. I have been building a great MommaStrong daily habit which makes me feel awesome.  Other than that, I’m not really in the mood to commit to anything.