Surprisingly Simple Tips for surviving Quarantine with Little Kids
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Welp, we survived. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I’m talking about a quaratine. Such a catchy word these days. Everyone is all “camp quarantine” this and “find your quaranteam” that. Here is some real talk. We actually did a full 14 day quarantine. This is different than your standard stay-at-home order. This was Self Quarantine mandated by the State of Hawaii after we returned to the island of Oahu from our mainland trip to visit family. We are talking about staying in your home, no visitors, no quick runs to the grocery store, or walk around the block for some exercise. I’m talking 14 days, in our home, no friends coming over to play or hanging out in the drive way with neighbors. Just me and the three girls (since Josh was away for work) and we survived. Was it hard? Sure. Would I do it again? If I had to. I don’t think its rocket science, but here are a few surprisingly simple tips for surviving quarantine with little kids.
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Get Prepared Before Quarantine
Obviously preparation is key to surviving most things and I am not a prepper. Thank goodness I have a loving husband that stocked out freezer with food and mapped out a few meals for me on return. Stick with simple and easy. I did have groceries picked up for me by the house/dog sitter so that our fridge was a little stocked for when we got here with some basic parishibles like milk, bread, fruits and vegetables. Prepping for quarantine is not just about having all the foods and toilet paper.
Think about the other things you might need in your house or in your backyard (if you are lucky enough to have one) to stay entertained for 14 days. Before leaving for our trip we invested in a new tree swing and this pool with a pump to keep it clean (hello I'm the pool boy)! Both were not things I deemed necessary until I knew we would be stuck at home for two weeks. Both provided hours of entertainment and kept myself and our young kids sane during quarantine.
The other thing that I stocked up on was craft activities for our girls. They are preschool age so having a craft they could do each day or every other day made our days much more enjoyable. We did finger painting, used these markers to paint rocks, made bracelettes, colored, created things with construction paper. There are TONS of creative ideas online. If you need some ideas check out my friend Tenley Clark. She just started a creative blog with all kinds of great kid craft ideas.
Take Advantage of Delivery Services
There are so many options for this one. Uber Eats and Door Dash for restaurant meals delivered to yours house. Instacart for grocery deliveries. Safeway, Costco, and Target will all deliver to your house. Thankfully I did not have to take advantage of any of these. We are blessed with a community that regularly checked up on me to deliver groceries and other fun surprises and treats. For that I am very thankful. I know that is not the case for everyone so I want to make sure you are equipped with options. Remember with quarantine you are not allowed to leave you place of quarantine to make a quick run to the store. Take advantage for delivery services and if you are staying in a hotel, hello room service. Yes this will add up quickly, some of these have added costs for delivery, so use them sparingly if you can. We made it the whole two weeks with only ordering pizza for dinner one night for pizza movie night Friday and one night of Panda Express via UberEats cause mama got tired of cooking.
Make Comfort Food
No shame here. I love me some comfort food. My comfort food of choice is my mom’s cinnamon rolls. She makes them every year for Christmas and I look forward to them every winter. When I gave birth to our first daughter (born on Christmas Eve) my mom made cinnamon rolls. It very quickly became a comfort food staple for all of my early days with a newborn, even the two born in the summer. When Hawaii shut down the first time with our mandatory stay-at-home order I made cinnamon rolls. So, coming home from the mainland knowing we would be stuck at home for two weeks in quarantine, I decided to make (you guessed it), cinnamon rolls. Make something that makes you happy!
Get Dressed and Wash Your Face
Real talk: I hate showering. I will happily go days without a shower (gross I know) but when you are stuck at home it is really easy to get into the habit of not getting dressed and not bathing. I encourage you to get dressed and wash your face at the very least. Doing so will make you feel refreshed and renewed and help you start your day on the right foot. Shower if you need but get dressed. Want to put on some makeup? Go for it. Want to put on your favorite outfit? You should. You don’t have to be seeing people to have a reason to feel good. Go ahead and pamper yourself if you would like. Just get up, get dressed, wash your face, start your day.
Create a Countdown with Something to Look Forward to
As we began our Quarantine I wanted to make sure the girls had a really good understanding of what quaranitine is and when we would be done. Communication is key with these little kids. So on our first day we talked all abut what quarantine means. We discussed why we had to stay home, why we wouldn’t be going to the beach, why they can’t go out front and play with the neighbors and why we wouldn’t be hanging out with our friends for the next couple of week. After explaining what quarantine would look like I asked our girls what they would like to do once we were all don’t with our two weeks at home. I then had them draw a picture of what they were most looking forward to doing once we could leave the house. When we finished the pictures we hung them up and created a countdown chain that hung down from the pictures. A link for each day that we would be in quaratine. Each day the older two girls would take turns cutting off one of the links. As the chain got shorter we got closer to being done with quarantine. For preschool age kids who have a hard time grasping time, this was a great visual for them to understand how much longer we would have in quarantine.
Treat Weekends Like the Weekend and Weekdays Like Weekdays
This one was really helpful for me. When you have small kids, I have a two preschoolers and a toddler (in denial that the baby is a toddler, I don’t want to talk about it), every day can feel like a Saturday especially when you are stuck at home. So we made a point to make the weekdays feel like weekdays and the weekends feel special. During the week we got up like we would for a normal school day and I am allowed time to work. After getting breakfast and getting dressed I would set the girls up with some school time. Don’t worry I didn’t do anything major. If this is your gifting, run with it. If it isn’t find something simple that works for you. We have loved watching Circle Time with Ms. Monica. The girls look forward to sitting down with her. She goes over letter, numbers, shapes, days of the week and weather. Some days she even has a suggested activity to do. Once they finished circle time we would do some sort of craft or active or just color/write. Its really great for kids to work their brains a little bit and it helped us have a little bit of a rhythm.
Something we look forward to every weekend is our Friday Pizza Movie night. On Saturday we allowed for our slower morning and pace of day. More lounging and hanging out. No work. No pressure to get dressed even though we did anyway. Sundays we got ready for church and live streamed out sermon. By creating the feel that days are different I think it keeps everyone a bit more hopeful and happy.
Limit Screen Time for All
When I say all I mean EVERYONE. You too, mom! I will admit there was plenty of TV watching and iPad time and probably too much scrolling for me. Technology can be an easy way to numb and get through the day, however I find with my kids we are all a bit more cranky or crazy at the end of the day if we spend too much time looking at screens. On the iPads I put a limit to the amount of time the girls could play. Yes they are playing all educational games, so I don’t think its the worst thing for them to be doing however I do not want them spending their entire day looking at the iPad. There were many times where I would turn the TV off and we all go outside, do an activity, play a game, etc. I even made a point to leave my phone in different rooms than where we were just to keep the temptation away. If this isn’t something you struggle with, you will probably be fine. I just found that we needed to be intentional about not relying too heavily on screens to get us through the day.
Move Your Bodies
There are countless studies on physical exercise and mental health. Humans were not meant to sit all day or stay inside all day. There is a reason kids have recess and PE. I may be slightly biased on this issue because I was an athlete, a kinesiology major, personal trainer, and had hopes and dreams of being a PE teacher but movement really will make everyone happier. If you have equipment for a home gym, use it. Some things that I love for a home gym include the TRX , Resistance bands, a mat, foam roller, physio ball. They don’t take up a ton of space and you can easily get a full body work out done. If you don’t, there are plenty of equipment free and body weight exercises you can find. Technically with the mandatory 14 day self quarantine you are not allowed to leave your house even for a walk around the block. So get creative and move your body in your home, even if it is just a quick dance party in the living room.
Encourage Independent Play
Independent play is really good for development but its also really good for mom. Kids can either play alone or with siblings but they should have opportunity to play without a parent hovering. This is a great time for them to use their imaginations, problem solve, and cooperate with one another. They truly do want to play together and can figure out conflict resolution often times without adult help. Not only is it great for them but it also gives mom a break. Sometimes when independent play is suggested one of my kids will choose to play alone and that is totally ok too. Kids can feel the overwhelm just like adults and that alone time for them can be a good recharge. I have always been a fan of independent play, probably because I did it a lot as a child too. Send them outside or to a back room to play. If they aren’t used to independent play it may take them some time to navigate it but I swear its worth it.
Make Sure Everyone Gets Alone Time
I’ll keep this one short because I already touched on it a bit. Even a big house can feel small when you are all quarantined together for 14 days. Making sure that everyone (including kids) get some alone time is really beneficial. It doesn’t have to be a long time. Just a few minutes here and there can do wonders for everyone. My only time was mostly after bed time and it was absolutely necessary that I let my self sit in it for a bit. #introvert
Lower Your Expectations for Productivity and a Clean House
Quarantine with small kids is just an endless cycle of making messing and tidying up, making meals and cleaning the kitchen, tracking in dirt and running the vacuum. Over and over and over again. It can get exhausting and feel defeating. Yes I tried my best to stay on top of it and stay ahead of the mess. Was my house clean? Most definitely not. Every evening before bed I made sure to have the house and kitchen reset for a fresh start the next morning. No dishes in the sink, no toys scattered on the ground. If you think you will spend all of quarantine deep cleaning or doing major projects with your small children in the house, probably not going to happen. If that is you and you do manage to pull it off, please tell me your secrets! Just getting through the day and managing the constant mess kept me too busy to accomplish all the things I may have hoped for. Which is totally fine! I new my work time would be limited. I knew my house would be a mess. I embraced the messy and imperfect and made memories instead.
Well friends, thats it. I don’t think it crazy hard or complicated. Just some really easy simple tips for surviving quarantine with little kids. We made it through. We had some fun times and some hard times and we still love each other. Heck at the end my oldest was even yelling “quarantine is awesome!” I wouldn’t say awesome but it was good.