As part of our blog series where we share experiences, tips, and tricks of living and working during lockdown, Sathya Gunasekaran, Senior Developer/ Analyst with NUIT, shares her experience of juggling childcare and work during lockdown.
If I look back at the last four months of working from home, it was not as easy as I initially thought it would be. I prepared a to-do list in the beginning of April, which included things like exercising and learning a new skill.
Though I had a proper workstation set up at home, having my husband also working from home and having to home school my 8-year-old daughter were very new to me. I neither had a syllabus to teach her nor the skills needed to be a good teacher! The long list of links to various resources sent by her school was a bit overwhelming. I had to sit with her for her online homework every day. She even had her weekly cello lessons on zoom which meant we couldn’t take any calls during that time (not even from the back garden!). We ordered some books and subscribed to Disney+ and did not know what else to do to keep her engaged while we were busy working. I felt guilty about either having to leave her on her own or at times not being able to concentrate on work as much as I wanted to.
Despite saving 2.5 hours every day by not travelling to work, I did not learn a new skill, I did not teach my daughter much and I could not exercise enough! My to-do list lies somewhere untouched. So, if you have not done an awful lot during the last four months and just managed ticking along so far, it is okay, you are not alone.
Thank you Sathya, for an honest account of how a family dealt with a strange phase. I found it very odd that homeschooling and working from home were expected with same efficiency as if nothing had changed. When mentally it was such a tough time with all the uncertainty and media updates filling our heads. Neither we knew how to make children understand the complexity of the scene. In hindsight, it would have been better to take it easy.
Thank you for writing such an honest and genuine account Sathya. As a working parent of two I also found lockdown challenging with feelings of guilt at not being able to do enough home schooling and juggling online meetings and tasks, which sometimes felt in contrast with examples on social media of people decorating and doing DIY, planting brand new vegetable patches and exercise.
It has been a huge learning curve for us all and for society and perhaps an opportunity to reflect on what is most important.
Stay well and safe and strong.