Tuesday, March 17, 2020

More Social Distancing

Skylar read some advice on the internet for couples who are now stuck at home together all day. It said to come up with an imaginary coworker and blame everything on that person so I've been listening to him say stuff all day like "Oh dear, it looks like Betty left all her dishes in the sink again. How inconsiderate."

It's not really helping things. Even he has to admit that. Only yesterday he spent an unfortunate amount of time making a graph:


He tweeted that out and then an hour later he gasped and said he realized he got the red and yellow lines backwards.


"HAS IT ALREADY GONE VIRAL OR CAN I STILL DELETE IT WITHOUT PEOPLE NOTICING?!"

I didn't have the heart to tell him only 7 of his followers bothered to like it.

I'm becoming convinced he doesn't actually understand how the Internet works at all. It took two attempts to tweet that image. His first tweet just contained a link to something I'm pretty sure was straight up spam. Earlier that morning I caught him watching an Instagram live video of some celebrity, and then yelling into his phone "can you hear me?!"

Duncan seems sick of us. We thought this would be the best time of his life, having both of us home with him all day. Instead he just stomps from room to room trying to get away from us because he's used to taking at least a four-hour uninterrupted nap on the couch starting nearly immediately after getting out of bed every morning. Now he has to deal with two grown men chasing him all day, wiggling their fingers, and nonsensically yelling "tickle bums!"

Yesterday I heard Skylar in the other room say in a disappointed and stern voice, "Duncan, I am your father. You need to listen to me." So I guess homeschooling isn't going great.


My new favorite hobby is scrolling through Instagram, finding videos and photos of people out at parties, and shaking my head while whispering "how irresponsible." I think that automatically makes me old enough that I'm now in the category of vulnerable persons.

But also, HOW IRRESPONSIBLE.

All in all, things are fine, even if the extreme extrovert in me is on the verge of a totally nervous breakdown. I'm knitting and working and doing yard work and cooking and trying not to go crazy but it's getting difficult because we've been doing this for . . . let's see . . . carry the one . . . ELEVENTY MONTHS already.

How are you guys coping? What are you doing to make use of your time? Please share with the class.

~It Just Gets Stranger

21 comments:

  1. Runs to twitter to start following Skylar.

    I think at the end of this coronavirus thing I will understand how Twitter works. Maybe. How long will this corona thing last?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amy - I'm so disappointed that you hadn't already followed @SkyWest on Twitter!

      Delete
  2. I am a veteran homeschooler here. I have been homeschooling preschoolers for 3 years and a first grader since August 2019. So I have advice for you RE: Homeschooling Duncan.
    I believe your family would benefit from incorporating Morning Time/Morning Basket into your homeschool. Remember, homeschooling is not simply about educating at home, but about intentionally creating an environment of peace and love. How do you do Morning Basket? It’s quite easy. First, brew yourself a cup of tea and locate a basket. Use the basket to gather your favorite poetry books, devotional materials, inspirational music, art to admire, and novels to read aloud. The basket should also be equipped with quiet ‘busy hands’ activities for your child. Coloring books, play doh, and Legos are all fine. Maybe you could settle for a rawhide bone since he is a dog, I only have human children and not dogs so I don’t know what they like to do to keep quietly busy.
    After you have gathered these things, you spend the next 3 hours together, taking turns reading aloud the various poetry/devotionals/novels, studying the art, and of course singing together. Every homeschool family does this. It is the cornerstone of a homeschool. This is why homeschooled siblings *actually* love each other. Morning Time is why we never raise our voices above a medium whisper. Morning Time inspires us to love togetherness soooo much.
    MORNING.
    TIME.
    That is your answer to a blissfully peaceful homeschool.

    (yes this is satire that is probably only funny to homeschoolers but oh well. At least I know my niche!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG I'm so glad you said this was satire. I'm sitting here trying to imagine my friends who home school do this and I actually could. This was followed by ME trying to do this and feeling horrified.

      Delete
    2. Hahaha, there are 100% homeschoolers who do morning time consistently, and the idealized version (that no one can live up to) sounds a lot like what I wrote. In real life it doesn’t really look like this, or, last week my kids made leprechaun traps while I read them Charlotte’s Web. Sometimes we read picture books and scriptures together too. I don’t always remember to do it, but it’s nice to take time together in the mornings when I do :)

      Delete
  3. Having already worked from home the first six weeks of this year, I can tell you that pets definitely get sick of having people home all day. My cats used to wait by the door for me and demand cuddles every evening. Now they barely acknowledge my existence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My cat has decided he gets lap time from 10 - 11 every night - he never did this before.

      Delete
  4. I wanted to order some cross stitching stuff so I can learn a new talent/skill. However, my husband told me I’m not a crafter. After a couple excuse me’s and how dare you’s, he “kindly” reminded me of all the other crafts I had started and had yet to finish. So all is well here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm already an online teacher, so ... business as usual for me! But I did have the privilege of training about 30 fellow teachers yesterday on the inner workings of Zoom. Then spent the rest of yesterday and today answering questions about it via email. So maybe I didn't do a very good job? Or maybe I'm just 15+ years younger than most of the people in that room and they're just #old?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I work in telehealth. I am still going to work. I have been working extra long hours. I am tired.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the work you and your co-workers are doing!!

      Delete
  7. I recommend being an introvert. Almost nothing about my life has changed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm an introvert who has lived life as an extrovert because, well, society. In any case - everything about my world has changed and I can't enjoy it because I also abhor change.

      Delete
  8. I will schedule a time to pick up Duncan after we are done with our two week quarantine...since we are coming from Europe. But really, is Belarus in Europe?! 🤪
    Happy social distancing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Schedule breaks. Go in your lovely enclosed backyard (but not tomorrow or Thursday because it’s supposed to snow and WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT?!?). Ride bikes. I’ve told my running children that they were allowed to meet up with a friend at a nearby “track” that has an eight foot wide almost 1/2 mile path, as long as they ran on the inside edge and the friend ran on the outside edge of the path (switching off every lap, clearly, so no one ended up running miles more than the other). I told them they could holler their conversations across the eight foot distance. They declined, but I’m pretty sure the idea will grow on them after a few more days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your post made me think of something I saw on FB yesterday: Anyone else feel like life is being written by a 4th grader right now? "And there was this virus and everyone was scared. And then the world ran out of toilet paper, yeah, and then there was no school for like a month and it snowed!

      No snow in the forecast for Michigan but there's the possibility of tornadoes. I expect the see the four horsemen of the apocalypse cantering down the road any day now.

      Delete
  10. I body checked my husband accidentally on purpose. I’ve been working from home for days. He’s working from home starting tomorrow. Two mopey tween and one toddler. Time to practice what I preach when it comes to coping skills. (Heeeeelllppp)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just made a batch of vodka-soaked gummy bears (not that we know what vodka is Cathy!) to help with my coping. I highly recommend it.

      Delete
  11. It’s my daughter’s senior year of high school. Poor girl. Her whole group was born right before or during the 9/11 crisis and now this during their last year of high school. No senior prom, senior breakfast, ditch day, senior pranks. She’s feeling pretty bummed, but also taking the quarantine very seriously. A big group of them FaceTime together at night. We are doing everything we can to protect those who are most vulnerable. Praying that it works!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Picturing Duncan stomping......

    ReplyDelete