I really don’t envy parents with school age children. Whether trying to work from home and basically home school, or still at your job and having to figure it out, it has to be hard.
So much we take for granted is on pause.
• School
• Work
• Dining out
• Grocery shopping
• Picking up prescriptions
• Dr appointments and tests
• Group home coming and going and home visits
• Day Program
A friend of my spouse’s has a daughter in preschool 2 days a week (so far still open) and a son in 1st grade. She works at a veterinarian clinic where they have had to lock the doors and let in 1 pet and their owner(s) at a time. The waiting area is now client’s vehicles. Both her kids are very high energy. Even though the school has given guidance for online learning, it’s still difficult to set a routine. She was flabbergasted that the outline of classes includes gym. GYM! So in the morning she sends her son out to ride his bike back and forth to the corner for awhile. When he’s done, she tells him “Good job! You got an A in gym this morning!” In the afternoon, after some online learning, it’s jumping jacks and squat thrusts. When he’s done, she tells him “Good job! You got an A in gym this afternoon!”
My daughter’s part time job is at a grocery store, so she will be working for the time being. This will be good for her because she loves talking to customers and she really enjoys interacting with her coworkers. Not thrilled she is out in the community, risking exposure, but the store is very strict on sanitizing and has hand sanitizer in work and break areas.
Dining out is delivery or takeout. Want to dine out? Hope you don’t mind crumbs in your car. We have cut out all outside food. Not out of paranoia, but out of trying to save money and make it to the end of the month. My daughter was the generous one, paying for dining out for the family or fast food. (We’re talking low priced fare and coupons.) My daughter is really missing dining out. Friday we thought she was going on a home visit, but if she would have gone home she would have to stay with us for 2 weeks and we would have to provide transportation for work. Since we had picked her up, I offered to take her to pick up dinner at a nearby restaurant. My daughter the planner, she ordered 3 meals to go so she would have food for several days. Lol!
Grocery shopping is a real chore. Stores are crowded, everything in short supply, and tempers run hot. Local Facebook groups and NextDoor have been having members report daily which stores have what, and what had already run out. People are stepping up, it’s really heartwarming seeing people offer items free to those who can’t get to the store because they are a caregiver for an immune compromised child or adult. People offering to shop for seniors too scared to leave home. Who would have thought that in 2020 people are helping others?
My spouse was at Target Tuesday, she saw an employee bring carts in and heavily spray sanitizer all over the carts. All over the carts! Not just the cart handles. I was both surprised and happy to hear it.
Prescription pickups aren’t bad, but it’s obnoxious how many times a week we have to pick up for a family of 4. Insurance won’t allow prescriptions to be filled early. Insurance also is no longer using the fill date to determine the next month’s fill date. They are using the pickup date, so we can’t pick up anything late because it delays next month’s refill.
We cancelled this week’s Dr appointments and test on Monday. Drove by the podiatrist today and the lot was empty. My daughter had to cancel her ultrasound. I’m somewhat concerned because it is to check on her cyst, but since I have been getting her medication, I have insured there were no gaps in taking it, so it’s more likely the cyst hasn’t grown. No idea when we can reschedule anything. I don’t have follow-up tests on my tumor until December, so God willing this virus is contained and eliminated long before then. I do have appointments in May and June for my knees and shoulders. It’s crazy they were booked out 5 and 6 months ahead.
As far as the group home goes, no home visits and no visits from family in the group home. We’ve bent the rules twice. Sunday they were out of bottled water and staff refused to brave the crowds. I wasn’t going to let the ladies to drink the swill that is their city’s water, so I picked up 4 gallons of water. I dropped off 2 and will keep 2 in case this happens again. Today I picked up asthma inhalers for my daughter so I called for permission to drop them off. Since I got the ok, I stopped at Jewel and got my daughter some items she needed and some treats to share with the ladies and staff. (Gotta keep the staff happy so I can drop off her other inhalers when the prescriptions are filled.)
Day program cancelled. Counselors and staff are supposed to be going to the group homes and doing the things they usually do at program like groups, creative time, social time, etc. They have shown up, but it’s basically been a free for all. Not happy about that, but since I’ve had to call the Director 3 times in 5 days, I’m going to see if things improve. The housemate who bullies and threatens my daughter came back from a rehab stay because she broke her leg. The second she returned she started up again. Staff and the team lead totally ignore it. Since I had to call for clarification on client jobs and transportation, I took the opportunity to address the bullying with the highest staff member. I threw ALL the staff and the team lead under the bus because they deserve to be there. The Director promised action, and so far things have improved. 🤞
Hopefully this won’t be long and drawn out. I’m praying for all of us.
Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2020
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