“And don’t ever wake them up.”
Clara Ferreira Marques, 40, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist in Hong Kong who lives with her husband and three kids, stressed the importance of scheduling blocks of child-free time. “This is challenging for most of us who end up alone at home, but not impossible.”
Also: Buy lots of craft material, coloring books, workbooks. Schools will not always provide the right amount of work, and you will need to add/fill in.
“Prepare enough books and toys, but give them to kids only in batches,” says Penny Peng, 32, a news editor in Beijing. Think of activities to give them, such as light housework or cleaning their play mats.
And talk to your kids about what is happening, adds Ferreira Marques. Buy the papers. Explain the age-appropriate details. This is new territory for them, too.
Avoid Isolation
Social distancing isn’t easy, especially if you’re used to a bustling office.
“It’s actually been quite a struggle for me to try to stay sane,” says Jihye Lee, 28, a breaking news reporter in Seoul. “I started making sure I talk to someone on the phone at least once a day.”
And although decompressing over lunch with co-workers might be out of the question, that doesn’t mean meals have to be solitary. “I’ve started eating while watching mukbang,” says Lee, “which is a form of YouTube where people just eat … and talk to you.” Her favorites are Boki, Hamzy, and Hatnim.
You can also try watching movies with your bestie, just remotely. “When my friend in Beijing was under lockdown (and about to go crazy), I scheduled a lot of weekend movie screenings with her over a video call,” says Servando, who used Google Hangouts. “We’d pull up the same movie on Netflix and start streaming at the same time, and then unmute the call if we had a comment.” She kept the fare light and non-gloomy: Top Gun, Taylor Swift’s Miss America documentary.
If happy hour was a regular fixture before working from home, try to recreate it virtually.