Will Parenting Change Post The Pandemic?

How will parenting change after quarantine?

Following the ‘new normal’ that quarantine has become, life has took a huge turn for everybody. The surprising thing about quarantine due to the coronavirus is that we cannot complain because it’s not just us who are suffering, it’s the same story with the entire world. Our dictionary has added new words like ‘quarantine’ and ‘lockdown’ that we never heard of before. With the world adjusting to a new normal, I often wonder how life would be after the lockdown.

To take a little break from my busy life, bound in the walls of my house, I decided to sip my coffee, sitting on my window. The once bustling streets are all quiet, the markets are empty, clear skies filled with birds never seen before and animals have made the streets their new homes. The only thing missing are the people. As eerie as it looked, somehow the visuals seemed peaceful to me. A thought that evoked my mind was- nature is healing. But what about us?

The coronavirus has brought its own set of horrors to me- the safety of my toddler. I always sleep wondering how will my little one adjust to her life post the lockdown. Will everything be the same again? Will schools reopen and function as usual? Will the playgrounds be filled with children? Even if things do go back to normal, life won’t be the same anymore. We will accessorize ourselves with face masks and gloves wherever we go. It will be a horror to send my child to school everyday. The toughest question is- how will the schools maintain social distancing on a daily basis? But if schools don’t reopen anytime soon, online learning is what my child has to get accustomed to. Interacting with teachers in the classroom and making friends in school will be a dream that will be far from coming true.

While education will cope up at its own slow pace due to online learning, what about the playtime? Either I won’t have to send my child to the playground due to the fear of the COVID-19 or I would have to dress her up in mask and gloves. How tough it would be playing whilst maintaining social distance? Our kids will always have elders around them to instruct and remind them to maintain social distance all the time. Forgetfulness will become our new enemy as if the coronavirus wasn’t enough!

I have always made it a point to take my daughter out on the weekends, to beach, parks, museums and movies. But I guess I have to bid goodbye to these leisure activities and just visualize them in my dreams. Parks, beaches, museums, theatres will become a place of horror that we wouldn’t want to visit, especially with our young ones. A toddler who is growing up, learning about the world now has to learn things all over again, but in a different way.

All these thoughts running in my mind at once while I still sit on my window, peeking through the quiet life on the roads. Every sip of my coffee evoked a new dreadful thought about life after lockdown. But guess what? My cup is empty but my thoughts are still rushing. I might need another cup of my hot brew before I continue penning my thoughts about life post lockdown.