-I changed careers.
I worked in marketing for several years
and I started my nursing career at the start of March.
-Oh, my God! -Yeah, as a pulmonary nurse,
so, working with people with respiratory issues.
-Oh, my God!
-I think what's changed is I am a night nurse, so I work nights.
And the whole plan for me doing this entire career switch
was that I would get home from work,
and my kids would be at school.
And so that was gonna be my recovery time,
and then I was gonna be able to sleep
and then get dinner ready, like all these home-cooked meals
I had, you know, imagined for myself,
and get the kids from school,
be, you know, well-rested and energized.
And, obviously, none of that ever happened.
But, so now when I get home from work,
they've just had their night's sleep,
so they're like ready to play, ready to do their school,
and I just don't have the energy to keep up with all of that.
So it's been a real challenge.
Luckily, my husband also is working from home right now,
so if I really need to go to bed, I can go to bed.
But it's just a day-by-day thing,
just doing what you can day-by-day.
-So, I own a café
and catering company in East Harlem, in New York.
For us, we are feeding relief workers at hospitals.
And it's doctors, nurses,
and I also like to say, the team behind them.
-Yeah, so I've actually put on some weight recently
because of all the food.
-All the food.
-All the food that keeps arriving to our break room
has been fantastic.
-Work-life balance. Very early on,
I had to prioritize life and not work.
That's, for me, been the most challenging part,
is figuring out how to run a business [scoff]
during a global pandemic and how to keep my daughter engaged
and, you know, taken care of and feeling secure and supported.
And that's been the hardest part for me.
-I think I've become a lot more patient as a parent.
Like, if my kids are upset about something, I'm not like,
"Okay, you know, like let's try to solve it".
I'm just more like, "It's okay, you know.
It's totally okay".
And I've told my kids several times like,
"Mommy and Daddy have never gone through
anything what you're going through right now".
-And I hope that that's what comes out of this, is,
you know, a much stronger relationship,
with a lot more transparency between kids and parents,
in general, because everyone is, you know, going through that.
And, you know, we're not relying on sitters or the schools.
Like it's us, all day, every day.
And I hope that, ultimately, is a positive, in terms of,
you know, I hope that that's what they'll remember from this,
and not like the traumatic sudden change.
I hope that intimacy and that closeness
is what carries us afterwards.
-My support system really hasn't changed a lot,
just because,
you know, my husband is co-parenting with me,
and he's always had a really active role with the kids,
and he's always worked a pretty family-friendly job.
Because I really haven't been able to talk to people
about what it's like, caring for these patients
because, you know, no one's really gonna understand,
unless they're also in that role,
and I don't really have anyone to talk to about it.
Luckily, because this is such a crazy time,
it's fine, you know.
I haven't really had time to really sit back
and reflect, like, "Oh, my gosh!
Like you're caring for like, you know,
an entire patient load that's got, you know, this virus
and, you know, it's killing a lotta people,"
and it's, you know.
It's been really hard for me.
The hardest part for me has been the patients
having no family by their side,
so you, as the nurse, become like the sole person
that's, you know, able to talk to them and able to like,
you know, encourage them.
-You know, obviously, the biggest change for me
is that her dad isn't here with us.
My mom is 84.
She'll be 85 in July.
So, she lives by herself in Tampa,
and we had already been scheduled
to come for spring break
and, when they said that the airports may close,
literally closed the business
and left the next morning because the idea.
With my daughter, because the idea of her being down here
and sort of riding out in isolation by herself
was like too much anxiety.
You know, I won't go back to New York
until I know my mom is okay and that,
you know, my daughter isn't stuck in a small apartment.
She misses her dad a lot.
Like we have to, you know.
We're on FaceTime with him a lot.
And, you know, FaceTime has even become
he'll just be in the room with us on the iPad,
while she does other stuff,
just because, you know, his presence is important.
I think that's important.
And for me, it feels good to know he's involved
and I don't have to communicate it.
I kind of feel like everyone's in the same boat,
like managing, especially moms, like figuring it out,
managing day-to-day.
I think that my parenting style before is the same as now.
I'm pretty, you know.
I'm not a helicopter mom.
I'm, you know, sort of, you know, like,
"Let's figure it out day-to-day".
And I think whoever you were as a mom before this
is probably who you still are gonna be through this.