While people face the “Stay at Home” order due to COVID-19, some live alone and many others find themselves quarantined for safety with roommates or family members.
My parents are age 60 and age 55. I am age 30 and my fiance is age 26. My fiance and I moved home to California from Juneau, Alaska last year and have been living with my parents since.
Now we find ourselves in a multi-generational home during the quarantine. My mom and fiance are considered essential employees.
Each day they go to work and bring home news from what is going on in the world. They tell us if people are social distancing and how well stores and restaurants are implementing the guidelines outlined by the Center for Disease Control.
As more people become infected with COVID-19, my family finds ourselves having to hope and trust others are doing their part to stop the spread of the virus.
It is easy to worry and go stir crazy while in quarantine.
Open and honest communication has been key to maintaining a peaceful environment in my household.
We had a family meeting on the first day of April to share our anxieties with each other.
A change my family made after our discussion is my mom will take an extended leave from work to reduce the risk of infection in our home.
My fiance also has a new routine. When he gets home from work. He enters through the garage and takes off his work shoes before entering the house.
His work clothes go straight into the wash and he immediately takes a shower. It is a lot, but my family is pulling together so we can have peace of mind and be safe rather than sorry. We appreciate each other for doing our part. We are doing our best to maintain a regular structured day during the weekdays.
We each have assigned duties regarding the cooking and house chores. We have alternate laundry days, take turns for trash weeks and whoever cooks doesn’t have to wash dishes. We work together on house chores better than we did when we had social schedules.
The “Stay at Home” order takes away the excuse of skipping chores because there isn’t enough time. We also respect each other’s space during the day when working on school and
work tasks.
I am mindful of the volume on my Zoom calls or the streaming services I watch in my downtime, so I use headphones to be considerate of others working or trying to have quiet time in the house.
The“Stay at Home” order makes us miss going out to eat at our favorite restaurants and watching Dodger baseball. But overall, things are going well considering all of life’s plans have turned upside down.
My fiance and I had to postpone our “I DO BBQ” engagement party, my mom and I didn’t see Celine Dion perform and my dad’s 60th birthday pig roast party got canceled, but we are just one family in a club of many people who have had postponed and canceled events due to COVID-19.
Participating in the events we had planned for 2020 would have been great, but not at the risk of our health and the health of our community. If we don’t have our health, we don’t have anything.
The silver lining of this quarantine is I can spend quality time with family and become closer to them.
My advice for people who may be quarantined at home with family is to make sure you take care of your mental health.
In a March 12 article for The Guardian, Ciera Ribiero said “With routines disrupted and families thrown into close quarters, cabin fever is a real danger. ”
This is a sensitive and dangerous time for people who are predisposed with mental health
challenges. They will be vulnerable to relapse and struggle more with disorders. The stress of the pandemic could display itself with mood swings and emotional or physical agitation.
Dr. Carly Johnco, a clinical psychologist at Sydney’s Macquarie University said in Ribiero’s article “It is exacerbated by predispositions and thought processes and can manifest as anxiety, extreme frustration, depression or low mood.
Decompressing in a healthy way will be important as we all face psychological challenges in these times of uncertainty.
Movie nights have been a way for my family to decompress together.
Other activities to try are breathing meditation exercises, sitting by a window and reading a book, listening to a
podcast, crafting or coloring.
Cooking and trying new recipes is my favorite thing to do in my spare time. My family enjoys being taste testers.
Instead of worrying in fear about the things we can’t control, we can try to start everyday with gratitude for what we have and stay positive.
