New words in our lives and our children lives are “isolation,” “social distancing” and “quarantine” not to mention “Covid-19” and “Coronavirus.”
Not the words I’ve been wanting to explain or teach my children about but this is what life is like for everyone right now. I’m lucky and unlucky in the sense that my children understand there has been a big shift in our daily lives. It’s great that we can have discussions about what is happening and I can explain why things have changed and how we need to act and behave to keep ourselves and those around us safe. They understand that if we see a neighbour while biking on our street we have to stay away and not get close to them. They understand that their grandparents, although close by, are not allowed to come in contact with us. The bad side of it is that they have lots of tough questions that we as parents don’t even know the answers to. When the tough questions come up my stomach churns at what possibilities lay ahead of us. We are all terrified.
With these new words in our vocabulary we have to look towards a different way of celebrating. My kiddos have been worried that our Easter and spring birthdays will be a different reality from what we normally experience.
They are sad to realize that we won’t be seeing extended family and friends as per our usual traditions. My family was very creative in celebrating my birthday this past weekend. They decorated the porch swing, worked together to make cake, had face time calls with extended family and friends, made beautiful art work, cooked a wonderful supper and cake for me and we spent the whole day together playing games and playing outside.
While this was great for me, it has me thinking of what we will do if we are still in this situation when my eldest daughter celebrates her birthday next month. I’ve seen some creative, wonderful ideas from friends’ who’ve had birthdays the past few weeks. Some cool ideas include porch drop-offs, virtual gatherings over sites such as Zoom, honking and drive-bys, decorating windows and the house can also be a huge hit.
Porch drop-offs could be anything ranging from colouring pictures, cards, treats, presents, letters or anything else you can think of.
Zoom gatherings are super cool as well. If your child is older they can connect with a whole group of friends while all continuing to practice social distancing.
Drive-by’s could include posting signs such as “Honk for Jane, it’s her birthday.” Although these are all different ways to celebrate they warm the heart in the same way a birthday party can. It just takes some creativity on our part.
Coming up this weekend is Easter. Easter will look different for us this year. There will be no Good Friday mass or Easter egg hunt with friends, no Easter morning mass or family gatherings. While all this has me feeling sad, we know that the thing that counts the most is for everyone to hopefully stay healthy and safe. For that reason we will all see each other over facetime and enjoy Easter as an immediate family.
We’ve reassured the kids that the Easter bunny is definitely still going to come and his burrow is safe from Covid-19 so we won’t have to wash everything he leaves for us in our house (we will have taken care of that).
We will enjoy some sweet treats, talk about the real reason for this beautiful holiday and enjoy family time indoor and ourdoors. Luckily I’ve saved our plastic eggs from years past and we will definitely enjoy at least one Easter egg hunt (but hey maybe a couple more with the whole day available).
Another great idea might be to make an Easter treasure hunt/scavenger hunt to help keep kiddos busy on Easter and perhaps start a new tradition or two to enjoy for years to come.
Don’t forget to make some Easter crafts leading up to Easter, it’s a great way to liven up your windows and walls and to keep everyone busy.
However you choose to celebrate I hope and pray that you all stay healthy and safe while we fight this battle together. Everything will be alright.
