April 1, 2020

A Day in the Life of Social Distancing

This blog post is inspired by the one I saw on Cupcakes & Cashmere. I thought it would be pretty interesting to share what a typical weekday has been like for Coco and I in the past few weeks. Today is Day 24 since we started actively staying home. As I mentioned in this post, a teacher in her daycare was positive for the virus and her daycare was shut down for two weeks. While they reopened after the mandatory quarantine period, I did not feel very comfortable with sending her back - especially since the governor in our state had shut down public schools already.



Anyway here's a breakdown of a typical day for us. I hope you enjoy reading through.

6:30am to 7:30am: Coco wakes up in my bed. I'm not a fan of co-sleeping, but these days at some point during the night, she'll come to my bedroom and wants me to hold her while she goes back to sleep. It disrupts my sleep, but I love watching her wake up next to me. She's always all smiles and says, "It's morning time?! Look mummy, I woke up!"

7:30am to 8:45am: For the next hour or so, I try to keep her entertained and fed. Since there's no more commuting for me, I have time to spend making breakfast. I have made pancakes from scratch, French toast, etc. She likes helping me cook,  always asking to break the eggs, and putting different spices into whatever I'm cooking. In this time I also get myself ready - brushing teeth, showering, NOT wearing pajamas.

8:45am to 11:00am: Work starts at 9am on the dot, so a few minutes before, I make sure that I'm dialed into the office VPN and put on something for Coco to watch. We stay downstairs in the living room so I can work while keeping an eye on her, and the kitchen is in sight in case either of us wants food or a drink. I've gained 10lbs since we started staying home, so maybe I should hide from the kitchen. LOL

11:00am to 11:15am: I have my first break of the day and will either take Coco outside for a very short walk or we video-call any of our family members to stay in touch.

11:15am to 1:30pm: Back to work again for me, and back to watching TV and/or playing with toys for Coco. She has this toy kitchen set I bought her for Christmas, and she enjoys pretend cooking soup, pancakes and other meals for her dolls and for me.

1:30pm to 2:00pm: This is my lunch time and within this short time frame, I take Coco out for another walk. By this time my head is beginning to feel some weird kinda pressure so I really need to get fresh air. If it's raining, I'll grab lawn chairs and we sit in the garage and watch the rain (she would rather take her umbrella and go outside in the rain though). We also grab the mail from the mailbox and a few minutes before my lunch is over, we rush back in so I can quickly get our lunches together. It helps when there's already food in the fridge that can easily be warmed up.

2:00pm to 4:45pm: By the time I get back on my computer, Coco's eating her lunch and I've scarfed down my food in maybe 3 minutes. I spend the next 2 hours and 45 minutes working, during which Coco gets bored of watching TV and asks me to play with her or carry her. It's pretty challenging to work from home with an active toddler! I usually get pretty frustrated when she wants all my attention - frustrated with the kind of job I have, frustrated with the pandemic, frustrated with her. Maybe once a day or every other day, I have a little bit of a mini break-down, where I just try to breathe through it and tell myself everything will eventually get back to normal.

4:45pm to 5:00pm: My final work break of the day has me perk up a little bit, since the workday is almost over. I either play a little with Coco at this point, giving her undivided attention or find another room in the house to sit quietly, OR get yet another snack because why not?!

5:00pm to 5:30pm: I count every single second until 5:30pm so I can clock out of work and be free.

5:30pm to 7:00pm: When I sign off work, I breathe a sigh of relief. Since we have more free time at this point, I take Coco outside to really play. Our neighbor's kids usually come out at this time too and Coco has decided that their 5-year old son is her best friend, so she's always excited to see him. If they aren't outside, then I'll take Coco on a longer walk than before, up to the pond in our subdivision - although it's scary these days, because apparently there are snakes there!!!

7:00pm to 8:00pm: We eat dinner and watch mindless TV (or some news), and afterwards I start cleaning up the kitchen and the mess that Coco's made in the living room. I really should make her tidy up herself everyday, but sometimes I would rather send her upstairs and clean in peace and quiet.

8:00pm to 9:00pm: I give Coco a bath and beg or scold her to go to sleep. If I'm lucky, she'll sleep easily. If not, it's an ongoing Tom and Jerry situation sometimes until 9:45pm!

9:00pm to 10:30pm: Most times I haven't cleaned the kitchen or living room to my satisfaction, so I'll go back downstairs to finish. Depending on my mood, I'll end the day unwinding to mindless TV (currently watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix) or I'll pour myself a drink (Irish Cream is my favorite adult beverage) or I'll read a book or scroll through Instagram/Twitter/Facebook. If I didn't get to do my Bible/devotional/quiet time in the morning, then I'll use this time for that.

10:30pm to 11:00pm: I continue any of the things in the previous time block or if I have a podcast episode to get ready, I'll work on editing and promotion. If you haven't subscribed yet, please check out Mommy Oyoyo Podcast (you can also leave a voice note with feedback or suggestions!).

11:00pm to 6:30am: Sleep. My sleeping has been rough, because as I mentioned, Coco wakes up to come to my room and I'm not a light sleeper. If it's a bad night sometimes I stay awake for close to 2 hours, during which I scroll through social media or read light news.

The kind of job that I have means that I have to sit at my computer and can't pay full attention to Coco. I feel bad that a lot of days are spent just watching TV for her. I wish I could do more "education" with her, going through alphabets, numbers, and other learning activities. If you have any ideas please let me know in the comments.

P.S. I still haven't completed the laundry from the other week. I'm halfway through because I added more.

P.P.S. I've done similar posts before on the blog: Day in the Life of a Working Mom, Random Day in the Life (2015), and A Day in Baby Coco's Life.

P.P.P.S. Follow me on Instagram @BerryDakara to see snippets of my daily life!

3 comments:

  1. Awww it’s so tough. You may already be doing this but just in case, you can play educational programs on tv through YouTube especially if you have a smart tv. They include ; preschool academy, alpha blocks, number blocks, khan academy for kids and “read aloud” kid books. Either way this period is survival mode. Hugs

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  2. This is so tough right now, but I believe all will be fine. Say hi to that cutie.
    https://www.melodyjacob.com/

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  3. Sounds similar to my day. What's helped me (for education) I have ABC flashcards and matching flashcards that my son likes to play with. He loves to build towers, so we have different block sets and make him take a break from tv to be creative and build things. We let him build on the dining room table so that he is close to us while working and feels a part of everything -and it's easy to give him praise on what he's doing, while not getting too distracted from work. Still - he's watching too much tv, more than before - but it's too tough to stop that in these times. It soon shall pass!

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