Page 14 - FDCC Pandemic Book

Living in a Pandemic: A Collection of Stories on Coping, Resilience & Hope
This is a glimpse of what parenting is like during the pandemic. I have long believed that the correct ratio of children to adults is 1:3. You need an adult to keep the child alive, an adult to keep the adults alive, and another adult to work and earn a living for the whole group. The pandemic has made me believe that even this ratio is inadequate.
Tom and I decided to take our
then two-year old son, Adam,
out of full-time day care on
March 13, 2020. The pace of
news surrounding COVID-19
was starting to pick up and
the numbers in Arizona were
on the rise. Toddlers are not
well-known for their ability
to follow directions or keep
things out of their mouths
generally, and the safest thing to do seemed to be keep Adam home with us. We were both fortunate that we could continue working even though Arizona was shutting down. I can work anywhere, anytime; all I need is a reliable internet connection and my brain. Tom works in landscape design, outdoors away from people and creature comforts all day long. As a short-term solution, we both agreed to cut down our hours while we took turns watching Adam at home. I kept Adam alive from 8:00- 1:00 while Tom worked, and Tom did the same from 1:00-6:00 while I worked. We tag-teamed mornings, evenings, and weekends. That lasted all of one month before I cried uncle. Or to be more precise, before I cried mom and dad.
I know there are parents who choose to be with their children full time and what I was doing is not unique. Watching my own child for several hours a day hardly seems like a monumental endeavor. I learned during maternity leave, though, that I absolutely love my job. In fact, I need it. There is nothing that beats the feeling of finding a perfect case citation, or drafting a winning motion, or backing a witness into a corner. Maybe I’ve been watching too much of the Queen’s Gambit lately, but my job feels like an intricate chess match. And boy do I love knocking down those
(Photo Credit Courtesy of Douglas Christian, author of the “Happy Fourth of July!” chapter, infra)
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