There is no doubt COVID-19 has impacted everyone you know. Words we rarely used, such as social distancing and quarantine, now come out of our mouths almost daily. Home, work, and play all look very different than before. Are you shocked or fascinated by the quickly changing timeline and public opinion concerning the virus? Does your house feel like a circus, prison, safety net, or everything all rolled into one? I promise you; your kids want you to document this huge disruption in their lives.
History is important and this is a landmark time in not only our own lives, but in the lives of our children. One day they will likely ask us questions about the pandemic in 2020. I’m not sure about you, but my memory isn’t always so trustworthy these days, therefore I plan to journal some impactful moments from this time.
I know you don’t need one more thing to add to your to-do list, or another thing to make you feel guilty for not doing, so this task might not be for you, and that’s definitely okay. But if you ever enjoyed reading an old letter, staring at old photos, or listening to a history podcast, I’d like to nudge you to give it a try. Journaling can also be a great self-care ritual.
Tips:
• Format is not important. I find it easiest to type, so I plan to document on my laptop (wine in hand).
• Be sure to actually print the pages so they don’t live in a dusty laptop someday.
• Jot ideas down in a journal or scribble a few notes from week to week.
• Keep the pages in one place. Great storage places would be with other keepsakes (wedding album, baby books, etc).
• Try an audio version and do some recording once in a while. There has to be an app for that.
• If you have older children who enjoy writing, encourage them to document the changes in their lives and how they feel about it.
• Helpful things to include may be how simple things like grocery shopping and playing outside changed. Personally, I plan to add the emotional toll (fears and coping mechanisms), as well as changes to school and careers.
• Did you find a creative way to make a child’s birthday feel special? That’s part of their story they will definitely want to remember!
Remember you’re not writing an investigative journalism piece for the New York Times, so perfect spelling and grammar are not important. The end goal is having something that will refresh your memory for future generations, or maybe even just you. At the very least, maybe it will be one more thing reminding us how important hand washing is!
