Disclaimer: this article is meant to joke about our crappy global situation right now. No one here is taking blessings for granted, like being able to stay home safe with our healthy family. Now that we’ve stated the obvious, let’s proceed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. And sure, there have been some great moments we’ve had together during this quarantine. But if any parent tells you things have been smooth and they’ve loved it all so far, they’re lying. They’re putting on their socially acceptable filter where they don’t admit how often they pop chocolate and squeeze stress balls while crying in the closet. They’re not letting you peek into their real life because if you do, you’d see Mommy day drinking and Daddy pretending he needs to poop again for the fortieth time just so he can avoid the kids for a minute. They’re just giving you the social media version of life.
The truth is, most of us parents are fed up during this quarantine with no hard end date. It’s the most unbalancing feeling ever: loving our kids and wanting to be with them, while simultaneously daydreaming of a quarantine life without them.
Here are five things we’re fed up with:
- Hearing little, but loud, voices say “MOM” 1000x a day. I swear this used to be my favorite sound but now I can’t help but instantly think, “What now?”
- COVID-19 talk. You’d think in a quarantine, we’d be talking to each other less, right? Nope. We all have smart phones that keep us connected to the outside world, whether we want to be or not. And since this global pandemic is literally affecting every person on the planet, it’s hard to find someone who won’t bring it up in conversation. This isn’t helping my fears, which isn’t helping to settle my children’s’ fears.
- Cooking every meal ourselves. This pandemic has forced us to realize just how often we were grabbing dinner from a restaurant before this. And there’s a reason why we were doing that! Cooking for our picky eaters every single day, for every single meal, is stupid and terrible. We’re over it.
- The mess. Since home is the only place we can be right now, home is where the chaos happens 24/7. I swear I just cleaned those dishes and now the sink (and counters and table) are full again.
- Pinterest ideas to keep the kids busy. This is another unbalancing feeling for us since, on the one hand, having cute and engaging activities for the kids helps keep them focused and happy. But on the other hand, one idea on top of another is exhausting. We just want a second where we aren’t making our own play dough, scraping slime off the tile, or feeling guilty that we aren’t doing as many crafts as we could be.
Tensions are high and as much as we try to focus on the positives or the things we can control, there still comes a time where every parent deserves a chance to just scream into a pillow. We’re fed up. But we suck it up and get back to it, because we’re good parents and we love those annoying little kids of ours.