The End of Kid Quarantine, the Return to School and the Surprise Sad-Face

Over the last two weeks, my two young kids have been home from school on Covid-related protocols.

During that time, my wife was out on work travel for most of the first week while our 1-year old goes through a sleep regression. On top of that, I’m in a weird transition period at work where I am both managing my team and responsible for delivering quota.

As such, we planned to take some vacation time with the kids and wait out quarantine time with a hot tub in the Smoky Mountains.

Then there were ice storms and we had to stay home. And if we’re going to be home anyway, we may as well work.

Here’s the crazy thing. Being home with both kids drove up the engagement level between my wife and I. Between our constant juggling of meetings, deadlines, and this stupid walking app that requires us to get so many steps per day or forfeit our money; it was a hell of a week. It took more communication, it took more compromise, it took more teamwork, and it took more of ourselves.

My wife also did this while recovering from Covid herself. Needless to say, she is a boss-ass bitch.

Individually, my focus level went way up. Knowing that my available time to concentrate was limited and unpredictable, my baseline productivity increased due to a greater sense of urgency. I got more done, and in a shorter amount of time, than I would have even thought possible a few months ago.

On Monday, my darling children will return to school.

I’ll miss eating lunch with them. I’ll miss being the first one they see when they wake up from a nap. And I’ll miss that completely exhausted sense of fulfillment going to sleep at night having spent the whole day with those you love the most.

These are my good old days.