“It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
That’s how Mandy, a Kiddie Academy parent, described her homelife during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when she found herself in the position of trying to juggle working from home while taking care of her two-year-old son, Logan.
She’s one of several parents we spoke with about their experiences of trying to balance child care and work life during the turbulence brought on by the pandemic. Mandy, a healthcare worker, and her husband, who works in auto repair, were both considered essential workers when COVID-19 shut down many workplaces. Mandy was able to do her job from home, but her husband could not. That left Mandy in the challenging position of balancing work with caring for their son.
“Logan was home with me for five weeks while I was working full time. It was so hard just to keep myself on a schedule and then try and keep Logan on a schedule. He wanted me to constantly play with him. He’s only two. He didn’t understand that mommy had to work. It was really, really tough. I don’t want to ever have to do that again.”
Feeling guilty and struggling to find balance
Mandy said the hardest part was finding balance between her needs and Logan’s. “I felt so guilty with him being here and not spending time with him. But on the other hand, I felt really guilty that I was supposed to be working and I was spending time with him. I was really getting burnt out.”
Just when she was feeling like she couldn’t handle the situation much longer, their local Academy sent out an email saying that more slots had been opened for children of essential workers. “I jumped right on it. Within two minutes of getting the email, I was replying to it. I love my son dearly, but I had to work. To have the option to send him back to the Academy was a godsend.
“Logan was more than ready to go back. I already knew that Kiddie Academy had put things into place; protocols to keep the kids safe, to keep the staff safe. Communication was coming out the entire time that Logan was home, so even when he wasn’t attending, I still knew what was going on.
“We were all really excited about Logan going back to the Academy, although I was a little bit worried that he would forget the routine and ask where we were. But nope, Logan just stepped right in, like he hadn’t been out of there for weeks. It was an incredible relief for all of us.”
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