Thing’s I’ve Learned During Self-Isolation With Kids

Life is very strange at the moment. Thanks to the Coronavirus we’ve all found ourselves in the kind of situation I don’t think any of us ever expected to experience. We’re all trying to adapt to our new reality of social distancing, self-isolation and what that entails (especially when it involves self-isolation with kids).

For me (like many people) it means I have discovered the challenges of home schooling, working from home and the perplexing cross-over between the two. Here are just a few of the things I have learned as a result:

The Challenges of Home Schooling and Working from Home

Note: For the sake of clarity: my daughter is currently seven and my son is almost four.

1) My daughter is very good at remaining quiet while I answer work emails. I know because she told me so repeatedly while I tried to answer work emails.

2) My children are not pets. This was pointed out to me during a work video meeting in which everyone was showing off their pets.

3) There is no place I can hide my secret stash of candy that my children won’t find given enough time (which they have lots of now).

4) If (for whatever reason) I had to change careers and become a school teacher I would never be able to teach lessons in mathematics, language or other traditional subjects. I would however be excellent at teaching subjects such as: building things out of Lego, playing board games and jumping on the sofa.  

5) Children are very good at finding loopholes in the rules that you lay down for them. “You can knock on my home office door but you are only allowed to enter if I say yes,” does not stop them repeatedly knocking on the door until you say yes.

6) I might have dyscalculia (learning difficulty with numbers) or so my wife believes after seeing my attempts to home school our daughter mathematics.

7) Challenging my daughter to count to infinity as a way of keeping her busy was a mistake. I have learned she does not back down from a challenge so easily. She won’t stop counting.

8) Teachers are super heroes and their super power is patience.

9) To children there is no such thing as a work computer. All computers are for playing computer games. Even if you are in the middle of a conference call.

10) There is a way to stop your birthday party turning in to a Dutch circle party! Have your birthday during quarantine.

11) Being able to start my workday in my pajamas should mean I no longer need my alarm clock and can sleep in. Sadly my son has decided to take on alarm clock duty and regularly wakes us up at 6am.

12) At some point I will have to cut my own hair. My wife is too afraid to do it because she does not want to get blamed for the results. I’m not letting my kids do it no matter how many times they offer. I will have to do it myself and the results still won’t be pretty.

13) My work video conference meetings might be important but they are not as important as my son showing off the new funny face he has discovered he can make (and will try to show to everyone in the meeting).

14) Stepping on Lego has become much more of a work hour’s related hazard than it used to be.

15) Just because we’re all staying at home it does not mean we won’t be dressing up on the day that would have been Koningsspelen at my daughters school. I’ll be spending the day explaining to all my colleagues (that I video chat with) why I am, “dressed for King’s Day early,” and that yes, the painted flags on my cheeks are necessary.

16) Self-isolation with kids can be challenging, hard and difficult but it also means I get a lot more hugs during the day so that makes me happy.

What challenges have you discovered during this time self-isolation with kids or without? I hope you are all well, healthy and staying safe.