Pandemic!

It has changed our lives; work from home, social distancing, needing to tap identification just to get groceries.

In-laws got stuck in the Malaysia's lockdown in a routine trip back to Ipoh during March school holidays. I was caught in the dilemma of facilitating them back or just leaving them there... Of cos life is hectic without them to do the household chores, i read books for kids until lips crack and wash dishes until cuticles dried and peeled. However, life is also peaceful without them, and peace is priceless. I'm enjoying the extra space, an extra room for me to work at night, and currently blogging from my workspace set up in their room. We bought a dryer, a microwave oven (yay to homemade wedges!), and ordered tingkat for lunch and dinner. I spent a whole load of time with the kids, and that too is priceless. The thought of my mother-in-law chasing me off so that she can make Rachel nap is already sending my eyes rolling off. Wow and I haven't mentioned, it is soooooo liberating to be able to roam around the kitchen anytime i want! When mother in law in the house, she would be almost always in the kitchen, and I can't find anything, and she would ask me what I'm looking for, then either she don't know what it is, or she doesn't know where it is (?!) and she would call my father in law to come to help to find and make a hooha out of it. Drama, I'm pretty done with it.

The pandemic drove up home deliveries for groceries and food. Alex was just consumed by the huge increase in merchants coming onboard and was working almost 24/7. With his awesome home office setup with 3 monitors plus microphone stand, the kids kept disturbing him, sitting on his lap or even table during his calls (calls after calls.. endless). We worked at night in shifts, he would work from 9pm to 1/2/3am or depending what time I would wake up and knock on his glass door to signal the end of his work shift. Then, there were the all-nighters when the son would look for him at around 7am and then he would begin his sleep when all of us has woken up. Yup, that also meant I was alone with the kids for whole mornings. Those were tough days.

It just didn't help that my work is also essential business so when my mind was on work, I would get more impatient with the kids. That was definitely wrong and not helpful for the kids. So I started regularly waking up to work from 3am to whatever time my son would come to look for me (he has this strange sensor of knowing if I'm near him in his sleep). Most memorable was when I was trying hard to record my training video in the middle of night and he would appear and his voice would get in "Mummy, I want you."

So, I got to the conclusion that my family can only have 1 person busy busy with work. Full Time Work From Home Mum Without Helper is exhausting. I would be washing milk bottles or putting clothes into the washer-dryer from 3am :/ But, I also cannot be completely Stay At Home Mum. I'm actually very thankful for this WFH new norm, it gives me time with kids, lets me go back to office for breather or mental/ social recharge when I need. It is almost the 50% to 70% work arrangement that I had so desired. Just need to see how the meetings stack up from here on and if this is still going to work out for my family.

Which is why I allowed my in laws to be back. Fetching kids from half day school remains a logistics issue, and my father in law being around to take up this daily weekday task would give us more time to play around with.

How will things change when they are back after finishing their SHN next week? I pray for peace at home!