Skip to main content

Life in the Times of Coronavirus - #Coworkers




"One of my 'co-workers' just flipped out because one pancake, of four, didn't have chocolate chips."
“my co-worker (who is NOT the dog) licked me while I was on camera to get my attention and also as a joke.”-
“My co-worker keeps trying to steal my computer while shouting "I want do business!"”
“My coworkers got into a screaming fight over a single Lego piece.”

Add to these posts like my co-worker yelled to go do potty while I was on a conference call. Or my co-worker doesn’t let me get on a conference call if he/she isn’t on the camera either.
Welcome parents, to wfh during corona times. Tweets like these are just a way to infuse some humour in a tough situation. Because you know what? This is the best way for you to weather this storm. Most of you (who don’t regularly wfh) are used to having your kids at school, or a day care centre, and enjoy (or at times do not enjoy) a very different company. Now, you are juggling two worlds simultaneously. My sympathies, it cannot be easy at all!
Now, for at least these three weeks, you must juggle two sets of #coworkers (your kid, and your conventional co-workers), as it has been christened on our wonderful social media. My takeaway from this? Most working parents are sailing in the same boat, so everyone can empathise with everyone else, and enjoy the little stories floating around. Let’s face it, if we can spot the humour in this, it’s actually quite adorable (in anticipation of good things in small measures :D)
However, there will be times, when all this seems too much for anyone to handle. Remember the one main mantra- this too shall pass. We will all come out of it much stronger. And remember, if this seems difficult for you, the kiddos are also not used to staying at home at all times. They miss their friends, their teachers, they miss going out to the park. When it feels like they are driving you crazy, remember that it is probably working both ways. So, count till 10, get your other adult co-worker to take charge for some time, step out into your balcony/ yard for some fresh air, go back inside, and enjoy the best of this situation.
We are hopefully not going to go through times like these again, so make the most of it. Enjoy the family time (I really thought we would be in a Big Boss kind of situation, but hey, it’s not so bad), reconnect with old friends (I have had more video calls with friends now than probably the last 10 years or so), play with the munchkins, feel rejuvenated at the end of the day (having not spent endless amount of time stuck in traffic on the roads). Enjoy basic household chores with your #coworkers, get them to see and be involved in what you do, and involve yourself in what they do too. Listen to the bird songs, think about how you want to make changes to your lifestyle (pro-nature) at the end of the lockdown, and hope that we continue to see the clear blue skies in the future too.
At Morning Glorie, we are waiting for your new co-workers to come back and become our regular co-workers. We deeply miss the hustle and bustle of a group of boisterous and not so boisterous kids, all age groups. Right now, the whole team is facing withdrawal symptoms from the lack of “noise” around us :D
Take care everyone, and see you all on the other side of this…

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Musings of a Pioneer: Playschool Learning for Toddlers (Part 2)

 …Till we were struck by a miniscule virus – the Covid 19. It is important for the child to continue to have the additional support in their most important brain development phase – the two to four-year-old age bracket – when the brain develops rapidly to almost 80 percent of a fully developed brain. It is important for the child to have external support to develop cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and motor skills. It is important for the toddler to be exposed to a peer group and caregivers other than parents, whom they could observe and imitate for holistic development to happen. It is important for the child to be in a more conducive environment at school where they could indulge in their favourite pastimes in a non-judgemental atmosphere. It is also important for the child to continue to have an environment where they can interact socially with their peer group. This environment is now being denied to the children of this age bracket of two to four years. Many young

Early Years Learning - Concrete vs Abstract

  "My child does not recognize certain alphabets" "My child tends to shy away whenever we have guests at home" "My child does not show interest in number recognition, but loves to mess around in sand" "My child loves to speak, but when I ask her to speak vocabulary with a particular alphabet, she goes silent" "My child understands shapes, but is unable to find them in his surroundings" Notice the difference in the implications of these statements - they represent some examples of the difference between what we call concrete vs abstract learning during the early years at Morning Glorie, play school in Gurgaon, and online homeschooling in India. All too often, we tend to focus on learning which can be measured, which is concrete. What we tend to forget is, every experience, new or repeated, is a learning - this is truer during the early years of life, though it is something to ponder on and incorporate in our own lives irrespective of age

Pushing Children Beyond Their Comfort Zone - Striking the Right Balance

My mother, who is also my partner at work (this may seem odd, but we do complement each other in our skillsets, this makes us a good team), takes some of the batches in our online homeschooling in India program. These are live and interactive sessions, where parent and child attend together and are part of small groups of children for guided learning sessions. She also handles communication with the parent body, something we have learned is a very crucial aspect - at times, it is our responsibility to give the right guidance to parents as much as addressing queries which they may have. So two instances happened in the last couple of months, where a concerned parent called us up to tell us that their child was only interested in some of the activities, which seemed more fun in nature, while they tended to either show disinterest, or run away from some of the other activities.  Their query to us had two dimensions -  1. Should the nature of activities be changed? 2. Were we pushing the c