Challenging time? No not for me.
I'm busy learning life skills, discipline and time management.
I also love to colour and dance, which keeps me fit here.
I'm bored these days, but actually I'm not bored.
Because I bake cookies,
I write, I do maths,
and I wrote ten books.
I hope this coronavirus goes
at once.
Essentially we're doing five things every day.
We are colouring together,
dancing together, singing together, reading together,
and a bit of cooking together.
We're throwing in a lot of cuddles, a lot of extra kisses nowadays,
checking on each other's dreams, because happy parents, happy families make
for happy children.
Our children have been busy, of course, doing a little bit of community work.
They were reaching out to the neighbours. for any kind of help
so they were walking the dog for senior citizens, or
delivering medicines and of course, food and all that,
keeping social distancing and quarantine in priority.
They have been upcycling a lot of stuff.
The kids are now finding ways of converting T-shirts into bags, and
making plastic containers into pots,
and they're planting.
At the end of each day, I give my daughter stickers.
It's a collection which she maintains like this,
dividing it into two parts: good or bad.
If she has a milk in time, she gets a smiley.
If she does not pack up after playing, she gets a sad face.
This way throughout the day, she tries
very hard to gain as many smileys as she can.
Because of increased screen time, I think
family time is a boon in this phase.
And we should make sure we get that.
And I think there's not been a better time to get our hobbies to practice.
She has an intellectual disability,
and the lockdown period has been very tough on her.
One of the ways we've been able to retain our equanimity
is getting her involved.
So even if she's not able to perform
any of the chores or activities,
it is getting her to feel,
that she's part and parcel of everything.
And one of the ways that we have been able to do
is making things interesting and using adventure and fun and joy.
Even if it's just fetching the tomatoes, it's like going on an expedition.
When the child is having a tantrum, when she's trying to make sense
of this absolutely unprecedented time,
I have to remember to be kind.
At the same time, we have to be kind to ourselves as parents.
We are allowed to feel overwhelmed - it's a tough job,
even in the most relaxed of circumstances.
These are difficult times - the child can have an extra treat,
or an extra half hour of screen time - it's alright.