Today Has Been the Hardest at Day 15 (may have lost count by now)

Today emotions are all over the place. This is getting harder. Kids are just not meant to be isolated for this long. Teenager’s hormones and emotions are all over the place to begin with and now throw this at them. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. Generally, my kids are pretty easy going and make the best of a situation but it’s getting harder and harder. I think especially when they hear on the news...kids aren’t getting it. Some media outlets are making it a life or death situation, some are not as bad. Some areas are harder hit then others. We have been lucky here in Orange County/Chapel Hill. North Carolina in general are not as bad as other hot spots like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It seems to be the locations which have major airports were the areas hit hardest for obvious reasons. Some parents have been a little more relaxed on the social distancing then others. I also have a couple kids and a husband with asthma, so I really can’t take that maybe 1 percent chance that they may or may not get it. Better safe than sorry. 

Living in the country we are even more isolated than those living in neighborhoods. Thank goodness! Also living in the country, I just figured everyone was following the social distancing rule and just staying home. I noticed that wasn’t the case when I would go into town for a run. I also think it would be even harder explaining why you can’t cross the road to play with your friends. At least they are seeing other human beings even if from afar! That’s what they are supposed to be doing anyways. I went to a local park to park and start my run on the greenway the other day, but yet there was still families there on the park equipment and along the trail yet another smaller park where kids were playing while the moms sat side by side chatting away like a normal play date. I wanted so badly to walk over there and say something but I did not. They definitely were not following the six foot distance rule and no play dates. Hello, that defeats the purpose. The longer people do not follow this rule, the longer we have to be stuck at home. It infuriates me.  It is an simple concept. 

I do not mind being less busy and this pace had been nice for a change.Being stuck at home isn’t all that bad from my point of view. At first there was the normal bickering between brothers but the one good thing that has come out of this is, they have also gotten closer and had to figure out how to make this work with all three of them. They probably have gotten along better in the last couple weeks then ever. The older ones have been more cognizant of making sure they include their younger brother in things. They all go to their rooms when they need a break without me refereeing anything. They get up and have breakfast, then get logged onto their laptops and get their schoolwork done for the day. Then in the afternoon, we get our exercise in together. The trails are still open so we can hit those for a run or bike ride. Cooper has hockey workouts to do and it has been fun for him to have Braedyn join him. They can push each other. Our dog Jake is liking all this attention! He’s getting walks everyday and everyone’s been spending so much time with him. There’s really been no bed times or alarms, except dad. He’s still has to get up and get on his calls in the morning. There are things I have let slide like bedtimes, screen time, and might be appropriate to wear jammies all day. This time has definitely brought them closer. It is something for the history books and they will not forget. I saw a post about a time capsule which I plan to do with them.