How to work during quarantine balancing house work
Let’s not distribute the gender roles, not inspired by modernization but by the situation – instead of one person having the maximum load of house chores why not do it together!
House hold chores are not a punishment but a way to keep us active! Perspective needs to change, living the old classic way can be the new classic way to live.
Cooking for the family isn’t a burden but an opportunity to learn new & healthy dishes to cook which will definitely be a part of us even after locked down. We can survive without junk.
Think of locked down time as a time to straighten things which you did not get time for:
Visual goals for future
Budget and plan for way ahead
Clean your cupboard
De clutter your kitchen, garden, store space
Let’s take the initiative to teach the younger ones in house to survive on their own. Help them understand how to do laundry, simple dishes to cook, chopping, manage their own things. This will help the younger ones feel more empowered, plus you also bond with them at their level.
Don’t think short term, plan long term: it is important to understand that this time is for us to improve our lifestyle not become more sedentary, thus picking up one way of working out, eating healthy, sleep cycle etc. isn’t only for locked down period but also for rest of your lives. So pick up things accordingly.
Inculcating new habits not only for us but also for our younger ones. So as we keep on saying that the coming generation will be born with phone and we also get quite irritated with the fact that they are on phones, but the question is where do the learn that from? Answer is very simple they observe us, thus if we want them to switch to anything different that an electronic gadget, we ourselves need to put in efforts to be apart from phones, we need to start reading again for the younger ones to pick up reading simple!
Remember the 80-90s times of STDs, when it used to be a ritual every Sunday to go on the phone booths to call our distant relatives to get close. The thing is the relatives have become more distant as we embraced the technology. Why not find some time to get in touch with all the people you have lost touch.
Well it is social distancing and not emotional and physical distancing from your own family who is staying with you in the same four walls. Thus important to have breakfast-lunch-evening tea-dinner together. Why not do the chores together as well?
Feeling what my family members are feeling: it isn’t difficult but isn’t that easy too. We know for a fact that working from home can mean, difficult to focus incase if you have kids, or joint family meaning that many number of people and you can’t shut them off- instead of thinking to shut them of or wanting to be at a quitter place, you might want to accept the fact that this is how it is going to be and thus adjust or use headphones or ear plugs if you need complete silence.
Nurture your house: Proactively understand the need for attention from your kids and instead of screaming back at them, take a break and play with them, talk to them, all this while they wanted your presence! Please embrace the extra time that now you got which was earlier spent in commuting!
Don’t be stressed about schools locked down and their curriculum is half complete: does curriculum mean math, science, social science etc. don’t life skills play an important role which mostly schools sideline in their syllabus. Let’s take this extra time in our hands to teach important life-skills: sewing a button, making omelets, fixing light bulbs, doing laundry, ironing clothes…etc. so many things that can help the kids survive when they grow up. Little things do make a difference. Math, science will help them get a job but these things will help them SURVIVE.
Rethink on the domestic help you got all this while: not to do all things by your-self, but didn’t we outsource too many of our tasks to domestic helps. Now that you have the time! Think do we really need all that help or can we do somethings by ourselves too.
Be kind: if you are working from home, delivering the numbers, meeting your deadlines, taking care of your home, amidst all chaos- you too deserve a big round of applause! Because if you can do it with minimum help, countable number of resources, we are sure you can do much better with everything you need!
