Caring for kids (and yourself) in quarantine
Greetings adventurers,
Your friendly Run the Realm team is NINE WEEKS into quarantine, and with two small children at home it's been a challenge just to stay sane. Here are a few tips we've found to practice self-care while sheltering with your family:
1. Accept the new normal: times change - don't try to force your routines to stay the same.
2. Don't expect too much of yourself: it's okay if you're not using this new normal as a time to pick up new hobbies, reshoe your horses, or grow your own yeast. It's perfectly fine to focus on survival. As someone recently said: "You're not working from home. You're stuck at home in a global pandemic while trying to get work done."
3. Lower your expectations of yourself, and everyone around you: Now lower them a little more. Remember, you're all just trying to survive.
4. Be creative and get moving: if you're starting to feel stir-crazy, you can be sure your kids are feeling it, too. Here are a few things we've found effective to get our little ones some fresh air and exercise while still practicing social distancing:
- If you have a bike, attach a kid's seat to it and take your little one on an adventure.
- Play Up the Stairs, Down the Stairs (this is great for keeping those glutes and calves in shape!)
- Hide chocolate coins outside or inside and have your kids look for them -- we've convinced our oldest that a leprachan lives in the neighborhood, and is sprinking treasure outside every other day to be found. (Same goes for eggs - why confine this only to Easter?).
- Let special occasions linger - our son's birthday was March 24th -- at this point, we've made seven different cakes and sung Happy Birthday every time.
- Go slay a dragon!
Do you have any tips on surviving with little ones? Share them in the comments!