Kids have a way of working us over.

Children – well, ours anyway – have an innate sense of when to strike. They know, when we are weak and distracted, it is time to emerge from their screen time and get up in our grill. Sometimes, when I am working at home at the computer, they leave me alone but wait for the precise 30 minutes in the day when Lori is deep into some structured activity, liking making dinner, to demand her full attention.

My own challenge is when they want to cook – AND THEY DON’T NEED ANY HELP, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. They always want to do it when Lori, the brilliant and gifted cook, is otherwise engaged. Suddenly, it’s “Papa, how much of this ingredient do I need?” or “Where is this very specific tin of product or baking dimensions?”

“I thought you didn’t want any assistance!” I lament, trying to deduce their needs for the fifth time in 20 minutes. “Why don’t you bake when your mother is at home and available to help?!”

Kids!

#WorkingFromHome

We are all remote workers now. The kids too. Their school break was extended by a week for the school to get ready for Zoom calls and email exchanges. Zoe is taking some tutoring classes via Zoom, and looks right at home with the headset on. #Boss

The day after the school’s online instructions for remote studying we got emails from the teachers: “Oh, BTW, do you have internet and devices your child can use?!” Good point! Acknowledging access challenges is the first step to developing new protocols. Every school and company needs to reconsider IT use cases and support.

USE CREDIBLE SOURCES ONLY. JEEZ!

Apparently, 5G masts are to blame for COVID19. Burn them to the ground! I am reading tales from everywhere, but I go to BBC, CBC, FT to get direction, especially about COVID19 trends. We should be considering the bigger picture. Just because an ERT doctor is complaining about lack of PPE in hospital X, it doesn’t mean your local hospital is suffering the same fate. Dig into it, and don’t trust your friends in their epidemiology skills.

Bang your own pot.

We live opposite a hospital. The daily 7pm salute to the front line workers in the fight against COVID19 is one tiny thing we can give back. On the first day, there were 4-5 families who emerged with us in our high density neighbourhood. Yesterday, it was a cacophony, one neighbour blaring “We Are Family” at full volume. We need to give ourselves permission to express. In the UK, they are doing the same thing once a week, and seemed surprised at how liberating it can be. I love Canada because, for us, it can become normal to share the love, part of our very fabric. Long may it continue.

And not just for the healthcare workers. For our cashiers, transit and delivery drivers, supply chain teams…every person in the interconnected system has value and dignity and deserves respect.

Dog days.

We are raising an assistance dog, and it is really hard. To get her to be perfect in her behaviour, we have to unrelenting in our focus on her. Every day there is a setback or 10. And yet, the softness of her velvety ears and her snoozalicious snores are so comforting.

As Lori repeats regularly, “Do you know who doesn’t give a shit about COVID19? Yoki (the dog).”

This Much We Know.