I watched the movie Groundhog Day, just a few days ago, and it hit me that collectively we are living the life of Phil—tomorrow is the same day.
This is the story, of a day in the life of a mother. Pardon me if I am a little partial, she is my daughter-in-law and the mother of six of my 12 grandchildren, yes six kids, five still living at home, fulltime, and quarantined, ALLLL DAY! By the way, the sixth is now home from college, at least on weekends, and they all social distance from the fridge. There was a naming quirk that my son and his wife adhered to when they branded the kids. All their names begin with the letter K except for the baby, Noah. They thought about having it spelled K-n-o-a-h, but wisely chose not to have him spend the rest of his life exclaiming, “no, no the K is silent.” So they are K-1 thru 5 and Noah. A side note about Noah, he came early and was born in the van on the way to the hospital, so of course, I wanted to name him Karavan but was voted down; can you believe it?
For those of you with children, you have lived the phenomenon of the older kids acting like know-it-all ‘bad-olescence’ and the younger kids whether they are in their terrible twos or ‘threen-agers’ desperately wanting to be grownups. Just like in the movie Groundhog the clock has awakened Erika at 8:30 am for the past 4 weeks. She stares at the ceiling, says out loud or thinks the word “six”, and prays to survive another day. Now, there is a silver lining, when schools were open she was up at 5 am, dressing a preschooler, a 4th grader, a 6th grader and trying to stop two teenagers from going out of the house dressed as homeless men. She did it, then took a moment to collapse on the floor as the last child waved goodbye from the four-wheeled school bus (the yellow sanity saver).
Those memories of quiet middays are as far behind her now, as her frame must have looked in the rearview mirror of the school bus when the kids were driven off to school. So let us think about her day for a moment, she is essentially homeschooling two elementary school kids, a middle schooler, and a high school junior. Meanwhile, the preschooler practices how many times in 30 seconds he can scream out her moniker, Momma! Momma! Momma! you get the idea…
Pardon me for a second,… I needed to take a moment and catch my breath just writing about her day.
It is easy for me to laugh a bit and smile at her trials and tribulations, but as with millions of parents all over America, these are hard times. Oh, I forgot, my son’s job does not allow for his working from home, so she has a man-child to greet and make sure he does not contaminate the children, later in the afternoon. I do not want to bring up laundry, meals, (she does not do windows) and the jobs of a referee, judge, juror, and executioner that every parent performs over and over and over. Bill Murray sends his blessings; tomorrow is Coronavirus Day.
P.S. for any COVIDIOTS who want to visit, hold on; but once the scare is over and the party starts, it will be a B-Y-O-T-P affair.
Vote in 2020 for Change.