Hashtag Mom Fail

Quarantined with Kids

Iam writing this in late April, so by the time you read it, we might be out of quarantine. At least I hope so.

If we are still in quarantine, I hope that this article brings you a little joy and you can see the end in sight.

Covid-19 has really rocked our worlds — literally turned them upside down.

So many people have taken this time of slowing down as a sign that we have been too caught up in our crazy lives. That it’s time to chill out and learn how to knit finally, or do a 5,000 piece puzzle. Maybe grow a bonsai tree or watch the birds eating from the bird feeder while relaxing in your sun room with a mug of hot coffee.

Then there is the fraction of us that are probably reading this article. This article in a parenting magazine. Those of us that are quarantined with kids.

Being quarantined with kids is no joke. Quarantined, working from home while teaching your school-aged kids and changing diapers is possibly the best way to test the tiny bit of patience I do have.

So, this is for all you parents that have spent the last six weeks trapped in the house with tiny versions of

By Jamie Johnson

yourself. But the versions that have less life experience and teeny tiny attention spans and no emotional regulation.

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Open your eyes.

The house is still a disaster, the kids are wrestling on the rug covered in dog

hair and you haven’t washed your hair in so many days you lost track.

Closing your eyes and breathing doesn’t work magic, but sometimes you just have to stop and take a deep breath. Along with the whiff of a toddler’s diaper that needs to be changed.

This is what we are going to MISS one day.

One day, I am not going to have to yell at my kids that we can’t go to the emergency room.

One day, I won’t have to worry that my kindergartener wants to be a ninja and will jump off of anything he can climb with no worry of breaking bones.

One day, I won’t have to mute my Zoom call so that I can yell, “You can’t eat ALL the skittles for breakfast, just one pack!”

One day, I won’t get to play hide and seek from my kids and sit in the bathtub drinking beer because THEY NEVER LOOK THERE! One day, I won’t load so many Nerf guns that I start to get little blisters on my fingertips. Then get hit

with the exact foam bullet I

loaded.

One day, I won’t have

babies to bathe and little

boys with boo boos to kiss.

It is all sweet and it is all sour. Being

quarantined with kids is just that. A

little sweet and a little sour.

So if you are reading this and we

are still in quarantine, I hope you are

enjoying it as much as you can. I hope

you have picked up a new hobby and can

now weave baskets while blindfolded.

Just joking, all I hope is that you

haven’t lost your mind yet. You got

this!

OP

JAMIE JOHNSON is a full-time working mom to two little boys, wife to Logan, and part-time writer. Her pieces have been featured in HuffPost Parents, Motherly, Today Parents and PopSugar Moms. You can follow her blog at HashtagMomFail.com!

Making it

C R A F T S, R E C I P E S, A N D A C T I V I T I E S FA M I L I E S C A N ENJOY TOGETHER