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Tag: COVID-19

  • COVID Christmas: Nurturing Holiday Spirit

    This year is definitely a tough one. With COVID in the middle of its second wave, trying to find a way to feel cheerful for the kids as Christmas approaches is sure to be a challenge for many people. This is doubly the case with income trimmed in advance ofthe holidays.

    Five Ways to Build Spirit

    • Decorate early & involve the kids. Although this is often a tiring chore for many people, and although it will take at least twice as long, getting the kids involved in decorating will not only keep them occupied, it will help build their excitement for the season and your own.
    • Create a smart home “Christmas Mode.” When I say the right words, not only do my main lights go green & red, but christmas music starts playing at a higher than usual volume.
    • Crafts. Every few days, put together another craft for the kids. Whether it’s a felt christmas tree, a paper snowflake, or decorating some bells, always have something handy for the little ones. Have them pick a friend or family member and create a card or decoraton just for them.
    • Learn the songs & teach them to the little ones. You may want to pull your ears out, but once they get the tune, popping a santa hat on the little ones and having a good sing-along is a great way to nurture some seasonal spirit.
    • Holiday movies & shows. There’s a lot of these out there, and if you have any streaming service, there’s plenty to choose from. Pop one on during or after supper, and watch the excitement grow.

    Closing

    These were just five ways to build the holiday spirit for your family during this COVID Christmas. There’s certainly a lot more that can be done and we’d love to hear what you’re doing to make things cheerful.

  • Halloween 2020 – COVID or Treat?

    My wife and I love Halloween. It is, by far, our favourite day of the year. Tombstones in the yard, spiderwebs across the windows, jack-o-lanterns glowing, horror movies running non-stop, and kids in costumes coming to the door… We love it all. Sadly, our eldest is terrified of anything even mildly spooky, but he’s getting better with Halloween Decorations. This year would have been the 1st year our youngest would have comprehended what was happening.

    I say would have because this year is going to be very different. Many parts of the province have cancelled trick or treating this year. Although we could go out this year, we won’t be. Additionally, although we could give out candy this year, we’ll be giving that a pass as well.

    What changed?

    The same thing that killed my position and helped convince me to become Dad at Home: COVID-19. With the virus strongly hitting its second wave just as Halloween beckons on the horizon, we just can’t rationalize the extra danger away this year.

    My wife is a Medical Laboratory Technologist. She’s one of the people that runs & interpret the tests on pretty much everything that comes out of or off of your body and lets the doctors know what’s wrong with a person. This is not to be confused with medical laboratory technicians: the people that load the machines and are not allowed to interpret anything.

    If my eldest were to catch COVID-19 due to trick or treating, my youngest, my wife, and I would all be at risk. If, following the chain, my wife were to contract it from my son, who contracted it from trick or treating, her whole lab would be at risk. A positive result would shut down Northeastern Ontario’s lab. There are couriers at her work, which come into contact with the Technologists, Technicians, Phlebotomists, and front-end people on a daily basis. If one of those couriers (most of which are elderly) contracted the virus, they could spread it to hospital & lab staff all across the province.

    With the testing backlog now stretching into 10+ days in some areas, I can only imagine how horrible it would be if every lab across the province were forced to shut down for 14+ days due to a COVID-19 case transmitting thanks to trick or treating. We won’t be the cause of that (and hopefully other people in labs across the province have the same courtesy).

    Raising Halloween from the Dead

    Despite the filming of the new Resident Evil movie on the corner, by looking at our block, you would think Halloween was dead. There are no decorations visible from the road. No signs of people stocking up on candy. And not a single sign advertising the usual Halloween parties at bars and coffee shops.

    However, if you know where to look, you can see that people are spirit haunting. Looking at side windows, those in driveways or between houses, and you can see the trappings of Halloween inside. People are decorating their livingrooms and kitchens, hallways and bedrooms, and I’m sure even their bathrooms are getting into the spirit.

    This year will be all about Halloween parties. Whether it’s a small family horrorfest, or a handful of close friends that are in the same bubble, there’s still plenty of fun to be had.

    Five ideas for Halloween 2020

    1. Virus-themed Horror Movies/Shows (or virus-avoiding)

    With COVID-19 still running rampant, virus-themed horror movies are a perfect fit. Because of the virus currently on the loose, anxiety over virus-horror is ramped right up. This makes the movies even more poignant, and adds to the thrill. Not appropriate for little ones, but a lot of fun for everyone else. Maybe keep this for after they’ve turned in.

    Alternatively, some people are very sick of hearing about the virus and want anything else. You’ve a lot to choose from, and there are plenty of kid-friendly horror movies that can make the cut. Avoid zombie & werewolf movies, as they tend attribute them to a virus of some sort (ie 28 Days Later). Ghost, vampire (surprisingly rarely attributed to a virus), and mummy movies work very well.

    My kids are really getting into a lot of the classic Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse horror shows right now, but pretty much every kids show has a Halloween episode that works well.

    2. Indoor Scavenger Hunt

    Depending on the age, you create lists of 5-30 pieces of horror decor around the house. List them & give each child a sheet with the list. Have a “big prize” for the 1st to find them all, and everyone gets their own bag’o’candy to enjoy once it’s all done.

    3. Piñata!

    Who doesn’t love a Piñata? There’s a tonne of great Halloween Piñata available to be stuffed, and with Amazon you can get it all delivered with lots of time to stuff it before the big day. You can even get a COVID-19 Piñata, if that’s something you’re interested in.

    Ghosts, mummies, vampires, zombies, skeletons, bats, spiders, haunted houses… It’s all available. You just need to narrow down your search and you can find what you need. Best of all, if your little ones aren’t as good with the creepy stuff, you can fluff it up with unicorns and the like.

    4. Catch the Ghost.

    This requires a bit more work.

    What you’ll need:

    • Paper, tissue, or Styrofoam ghosts (the kids can even help you decorate them)
    • An indoor fan, preferably a big round one, but a cylinder fans works too
    • Butterfly nets

    If you haven’t guessed yet, you point the fan toward the ceiling, throw the ghosts on, and watch them fly. The kids use the net to catch them. It’s a simple game, but a tonne of fun. Again, you can have bonus prizes for catching the King Ghost (or whatever).

    5. Scary Stories.

    Exactly as it sounds. With the light out, setup a pumpkin-fire in the middle of your livingroom and swap stories meant to frighten and unnerve with your flashlight illuminating your (hopefully very animated) face. Depending on how old your kids are, they may even get into making up stories too.

    This is the point where you get to have some real fun. Crack out the peeled grapes and cold spaghetti. Have someone listening in from the basement or attic add some tapping sounds and ghoulish noises. Rig up something to drip on their faces. Have someone jump out from behind the couch in the middle of it.

    Depending on how far you go, the kids will get terrified. So be sure to keep in check and adjust the extras to match your kid’s sensibilities.

    Conclusion

    Just because COVID is running wild in our communities, doesn’t mean Halloween is ready to be buried and forgotten. There’s a lot you can do to keep the fun & spirit of the holiday alive in your home. We’ll definitely be having a lot of fun here, and I would love to hear what you’ll be doing this year.

  • Becoming Dad at Home

    I wasn’t always a stay-at-home Dad.

    Like many men my age, I had a full-time job that took me out of the house on a daily basis. I got up early, grabbed coffee, settled the kids with the sitter or loaded them into the car for day-care. Next, I dropped off the wife & kids, before my 9-5 work.

    I analyzed utilization trends for a company that had just been acquired by a larger umbrella corporation. I was on a good career path. My work was paying for some certification courses, and I was passing them with relative ease. There were, of course, some of the usual, cross-generational, differences about the office, but generally they were worked around and workflow was improving.

    So what happened?

    It was a double-whammy of trouble that rolled out.

    First, I had a tumour in my leg, and I needed surgery to have it removed. The diagnosis came in February, and I informed my employer like a good little worker. I received the usual platitudes, inquiries for surgery date (which I had yet to receive), and so on.

    COVID-19 hit by the end of the week, and we were all sent to work from home. Grandma handled childcare, as the daycare was now closed (even to those with parents in Healthcare), and we were expected to continue to work.

    Personally, that was awesome for me. It meant homemade espresso instead of Keurig. A daily commute became a thing of the past. And I would rarely be distracted by the telephone, office politics, overheard conversations, etc. My productivity ballooned.

    I quickly caught up on a backlog of work, prepared company newsletters both in advance and on the fly, and made some significant steps in other work projects that would make things smoother on whomever took over my position when I moved up.

    A month later my workplace eliminated my position due to “lack of work.”

    So I searched for new employment. Because of COVID, there wasn’t any.

    Becoming Dad at Home

    I no longer needed Grandma to take care of my kids, so I took over childcare full-time.

    My wife works in healthcare, and actually had her shifts increase from part-time to full-time plus OT. So her hours at home went from reasonable, to limited. Due to maternity leaves, retirement, and an unexpected death at her work, her hours have yet to return to a more normal level. We don’t anticipate it will happen anytime in the next two years.

    It’s spring, and my eldest wouldn’t go to school until fall. So, I focused on spending as much time with my kids as I could. After all, a surgery to remove my tumour could happen anytime.

    I took on most of the household duties. Not just cooking & dishes. I also handled most of the early learning, activity-running, event preparation, shopping, laundry, sweeping, mopping, and a myriad of other things that I didn’t realize was going to come with being at home. Add COVID-level safety precautions on top of it all, and it can become a mighty list.

    Economy & Schools Re-opening

    Months went by, and COVID restrictions began to lighten. I re-activated my teaching license, in the hopes of stepping back into a teaching role. I mean, they would surely decrease class sizes in order to keep COVID from becoming pandemic in the school population right?

    Wrong.

    Not only did classes sizes not decrease, but those that chose to no longer attend school in person, now get to watch their teacher’s blackboard from a webcam and hope they can keep up. They actually cut teaching positions, forcing some teachers to handle 2-3 online classes in addition to their class at school.

    Still, once things got underway, I figured something would come up.

    I didn’t really think it was going to be my surgery. Nor a three-week close-to-zero-movement recovery. Nor did I think it would be a continued search, without any realistic leads, for a position.

    Accepting the Future

    I had been a Dad at Home for a spring and summer. The school sent my kid home “sick” on the 2nd day of class. They also introduced the 14-day or 24 hrs after no symptoms & a negative COVID-test policy, so it quickly became apparent that both parents could not work the same way that we did pre-COVID.

    My wife makes good money. If we didn’t have debt, I’d say great money, but that’s how it falls. Since there’s no daycare bill, it’s actually cheaper for our family if I stay home. Soon-to-be-constant sick calls from cold & flu season in kindergarten already looms on the horizon.

    With all that in mind, it means I’m staying home for the foreseeable future. I’ll be taking care of the house daily. Tending my youngest all day. Watching my oldest when he’s home from school. And most importantly, making sure everything runs smoothly so my wife doesn’t have to worry about things while she works to keep the city healthy.

    I started to piece this together once I accepted I was going to be home on a more permanent basis. After all, there’s a lot more to being a dad at home than most people (myself included) realize.

    What to expect

    I’m going to piece this site together as I go. You can expect a lot of tips & tricks, links to sites with resources, some homemade materials of my own, and a heck of a lot more. I’m going to review some of the products we’ve experimented with as the kids have grown up, and I’ll compare them.

    This site is aimed at helping you make decisions about how to help your family, and how certain things affected my own.

    As with anything related to parenting, your mileage may vary. Not all kids & families react the same way, but if my experiences are useful to someone, that’s the goal.

    I’ll be releasing articles twice weekly. Other website updates may come in between, as I have something to add.

    Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to receive updates and any sort of offers I may be able to pass along. You can also follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest so you’ll know when I’ve some new material for your reading pleasure.

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