End of week II of semi-confinement and we’re all more or less sane and happy! No, seriously, I’m starting to enjoy this dramatic change of our life pace – no rushing out of the house early in the morning, no more hasty school drop-offs and pick-ups and doing an x- number of other stuff.
Think of it, there are many positive sides to it:
- It can be a great opportunity for family bonding and spending (a lot of!) quality time together. Something to enjoy and cherish. We’ve also got definitely more time to be in touch with extended family and friends, which makes us all very happy.
- We even grew closer to our neighbours. I left our older upstairs neighbour a note offering assistance with groceries and another neighbour brought us a full bag of delicious croissants one morning.
- Despite not being a fan of home schooling (primarily because my patience levels are dangerously low), I do feel I know much more about my daughter’s school work than before. She has also gained additional confidence in doing it independently. To somehow compensate for the missing social component of schooling, she and her friends make regular video calls.
- We spend much less money on groceries and unnecessary purchases. A big plus! With restaurants, bars and other places of entertainment closed, the budget for these has also shrunk for many. However, the online shopping is flourishing in this period so not sure that considerable savings are true for all. I personally find it less interesting to buy clothes that I’ll only wear god knows when and will not necessarily fit me given my mutually exclusive proportions of food and exercise intake (to the detriment of the latter). But most likely I’m an exception 😉
- Those without any children or with bigger children probably have much more time on hands than in “normal” circumstances. An excellent opportunity to learn something new! I’ve come across numerous online courses (some of them even reduced in price) – from learning new technical skills, to meditation and yoga. Or alternatively, you can catch up on all those Netflix series you have never had enough time for 😊
- Last but not the least, my make-up use has considerably reduced in these last two weeks and I actually begun to understand a bit more how the political system functions here.
This unprecedented period could indeed be a wake-up call as to what really matters in life and teach us that slowing down is not necessarily bad (nor impossible). Another positive point!
Before I wonder off completely to the la-la land, on a less positive note, my daughter’s dad thinks that covid-19 cannot hurt him and that the rules about social distancing are there for not to be respected. A very convenient excuse for him not to see her until… when?
And I almost forgot to add that I was sick most of the week – temperature, runny nose, sore throat, loss of smell, body ache etc. With testing for covid-19 here in Switzerland limited to those most at risk, I’ll unfortunately never know whether our household is post-corona 😉
And how was your week?
