So it begins (cit.) is exactly the sentence I said to myself at the dawn of the very first day of this first confinement week, when my son cried to be breastfed for the fifth time.
Honestly, it’s not that I didn’t want to stay with my two kids. On the contrary, I would have loved to in another circumstances but this time me and my husband, we both knew it would be taugh. We planned in advance shifts to do in order to have at least 5h of work in total in one day but obviously (Murphy’s law) it happened that I got sick (!!) and then even worst in terms of having the energy to fight the battle.
With paracetamol as the only shield I could wear, we started the first week of lockdown while working and having the kids at home and so far, I admit, we survived with honor apart from a few very hectic moments and we did also at least 2-4 hours of homeschooling per day. Magic potion? No. But here the things we learned and a short reflection.
- Teleworking does not mean working from home WITH KIDS. Apparently, this is something not clear to the employers and it should because otherwise we risk to jeopardize the chance to have it in the future (if you didn’t have it already BEFORE the corona crisis). I’ve spoken with friends and people from various Fb groups and IG profiles and they all said the same stuff: “employers pretend everything is normal and we have to work the same amount of hours”
- Work to live VS live to work: although we all know the difference and we all would like to be in the first sentence, this crisis shows us that very often we are in the second, maybe against our own will. Our employers who ask us to work as in normal time are robots out of control. This sounds as a total disconnection with the real world as if the productivity won’t be altered because of this! As we weren’t in the same boat all together, juggling between anxiety for the moment, willing to protect our children from the same anxiety while trying to still make a living.
- Could this crisis allow a rethinking of the current economic model? The two previous points, lead me to broaden a bit the spectrum of my reflection. I would so much hope for a change like this. Really. It’s something I am thinking of since the start of the measures to fight against the pandemic. I read a long and interesting article about how world leaders can now decide whether this crisis will lead towards an acceleration of the carbon’s emissions in the next future (to try to make up for the economic losses) or towards a massive financing of green alternatives. We don’t know and we cannot do much about it, apart continue to low down our own blueprint on the planet (less packaging, less plastic, seasonal living as much as we can, less flights, less car).
There’s quite a lot for just one week 🙂 so enjoy the lockdown, if possible, and be safe!
Vattelapesca 