We are now a few weeks into this whole Coronavirus, COVID-19, craziness and it’s taking its toll.
First off, yes I DO understand that there are people out there that are sick from it, that have the virus, that are infected and who have family members or friends that are dying or died from it. I do understand that!
But, with that being said, I am talking about all these able bodied people that are not sick, that are not in the ‘risk demographic’ yet go out there since weeks and who have nothing more in mind than to buy all the sanitizers, toilet paper, kitchen towels etc.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???

I live in WA, the if you will center of the outbreak here and it’s been a ride!
Stores are currently empty, out of toilet paper, hand sanitizers etc and all I can think is: “Have you ever thought that for all the spread of the virus to stop, other people need to wash and disinfect their hands as well!?” or “Have none of you ever washed your hands before and used basic hygiene in this State/Country other than NOW?”
And, while we are at it, have you thought about the elderly people in your County/Neighborhood/etc that actually might need the things above mentioned or medication but you, being young, healthy, are taking all this away from them with all your panic shopping?!

Some stats about the COVID-19 virus as by the WHO (World Health Organization) on March 14, 2020:
Globally there are 142.539 total cases (9769 new ones) and 5393 deaths (14 new ones)
In China they have 81.021 total (18 new), 3194 deaths (14 new)
While outside of China we have 61.518 confirmed cases (9751 new) and 2199 deaths ( 424 new) in 135 countries/territories/ares (13 new ones)

Italy has the highest confirmed rate with 17660 cases, Germany (my home country) has 3062 case and then the USA where I am right now has 1678 cases that are confirmed.

And while the WHO gives you tips on how to handle all this, to avoid human interaction, to wash your hands, not to touch your face etc I wonder where the common sense in most people is these days. As I said before, did you not practice basic hygiene? Wash your hands? Because when I go to the store the hand sanitizer and TP sections are empty and yet, the body wash is stocked like never before. Are people just bathing in hand sanitizer now and skipping soap and shower gel completely??
And WHAT do you all do with all that toilet paper? Eat it when times get tough? Sell it? What do you do? I cannot figure this out for the life of me. BY the end of this you will have more toilet paper than food and cannot go to the bathroom as much as you thought you would cause you have no food to eat…. !?!?!

Since March 13, 2020 we are now on the list of States that will close their schools, Kindergarten etc for these next 6 weeks, until April 27th, to try and minimize any possible spread of the virus through our children.
As much as it has me and many other parents in a bind with childcare now, and we have to try to figure out how we make it all work, there are also all these children that are now missing that one important (and often times only) meal they got while going to school because they are homeless, in far worse situations than we are ourselves and no one likes to think about these children or the situations/problems those kids and/or parents are facing now.
Most of us rather complain that we now have no childcare (although some of these folks are stay at home moms mind you) or how we have to have the kids at home and might have to implement some home schooling during these upcoming weeks.

I get it it’s hard and most of us are in a bind, or make minimum wage and have to go to work no matter the situation but, it is doable. I believe it is doable!
I myself will treat this first week as kind of a Spring break for the kids, to get used to the time at home, to get into a new schedule, to figure what works and what does not with our new daily routine and then, after that week the teachers will also have figured out if and in what capacity online learning/teaching/school will be available for the different districts here.
I myself have already downloaded what I could with my kids’ log in information to their class specific websites (what they used in school etc) so I can have the boys do at least two hours of work/practice at home each day.

Will there be a struggle? Most definitely, especially with the youngest one, but it is possible. It just takes some more patience as usual and you and your children working together. Will I lose my cool one day or another? Oh most frigging definitely!! But that is what keeps it interesting LOL

Bottom line in my opinion:
Use your common sense, just because you are out of school don’t take the kids all kinds of places and have some routing going in your day to day life. Wash your hands, don’t panic shop cause that is what is the worse about this whole situation I feel, the people that are going or are already in full on panic mode. And most of all, don’t let the media an all kinds of different news outlets drive you completely crazy. There is so much information out there, I get it but, I believe that this is also a huge factor when it comes to all this almost mass panic that is going on these days.

Don’t hate, take these thoughts with a grain of salt, it is only what I am thinking, what and how I feel about this situation and stay healthy and safe out there, folks!!

Talk soon….