One week back to “normal” and I am losing my mind

[lovinmyboys]

Dh worked at his office only 25 hours a week for 10 weeks. That came to an end the day after Memorial Day and he hasn’t had a day off since-including weekends. His next scheduled day off is June 20. All 4 boys started baseball this week and my oldest is doing tennis with the high school tennis team. 
 

Of course I was emotionally affected by the pandemic, but am lucky that we have not (yet) been personally affected. For the most part, we had a pretty peaceful 10 weeks.
 

It was pretty jarring to move into “normal life” so quickly. We went hiking today and ds8 lost his shoe. I misread the sell by date on salmon and almost wasted it. I took ds to the wrong baseball field. I just cannot believe how much trouble I am having getting back into things. I thought I had improved systems during the time at home, but I guess they only worked when we weren’t actually busy, lol.

Anyone else forget how to live normal life?

[QueenCat]

Give yourself a good hug. Getting back into routines is often an adjustment. 

[mom2scouts]

I'm not sure I'll even know how to do things out there in the world. The first time I drove my car again after not driving for so long, I was afraid I'd forgotten how to drive! Things are starting to open here, but all of our normal activities had already canceled for the summer (except dd's sport and she decided not to go back).

[J-rap]

Believe me, "normal" is still not normal.  It won't be for awhile.  Ours won't be for a long time, given our area.  Even when everything is open and running again, it still won't feel normal the way it used to be for a long, long time.

 

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, lovinmyboys said:

 

Anyone else forget how to live normal life?

Um, a spouse who is working 24/7 with no days off while you handle juggling FIVE different sporting teams plus running a household doesn't sound 'normal" to me! That's well beyond normal. Give yourself some grace...that's more than a lot of people (including me) could handle. 

It's not hard because you are doing it wrong. It's hard because it is hard!

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, lovinmyboys said:

It was pretty jarring to move into “normal life” so quickly. 

That's why the first week of back to school is kind of messy town in my area. If school reopens in August, it would be even more messy town this year for the first week.

81st day of shelter in place for my area. Stores (other than essentials) are doing curbside pickup or still closed. I have had 9 medical appointments since shelter in place started so I have been going places and doing grocery runs and buying gardening stuff after my appointments. 

[vonfirmath]

Yeah, my husband is essential personnel but it was really nice the 6 weeks or so he only worked half days. Now, of course, he's working many weekends and even worked Memorial Day. 😞 So they are making up for the quiet days.

 

Some things have gotten back to normal here -- no sports though.

Edited June 6, 2020 by vonfirmath

[Ausmumof3]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

That's why the first week of back to school is kind of messy town in my area. If school reopens in August, it would be even more messy town this year for the first week.

81st day of shelter in place for my area. Stores (other than essentials) are doing curbside pickup or still closed. I have had 9 medical appointments since shelter in place started so I have been going places and doing grocery runs and buying gardening stuff after my appointments. 

Almost three months!  Wow... 

[Ausmumof3]

Things are opening up more slowly for us.  The kids have opted out of quite a lot of stuff anyway for this year.  Other than football and seeing friends at church they haven’t missed much.  Football starts next week.  Still not sure when church can reopen.  We are a smallish group anyway so really should be ok - smaller than the 80 for bars etc.  I’m going to keep with mostly online orders for shopping.  I’d forgotten how much less stress that is.  And the library is back but mostly kind of grab your holds, quick browse not hang around and take your time.  Dhs volunteer fire brigade probably won’t go back till closer to summer I suspect.  

[Tenaj]

This is the first busy weekend we've had since March and I'm dreading it.  Church starts back on Sunday and a birthday party (small family-only) today for my granddaughter plus sports pics for the yearbook scheduled this morning.  Too many things -lol!  First discussion we had in a long time as to who was driving what, where and when.  A conversation that was a normal daily thing now seemed weird and slightly overwhelming.

Just a note:. Sports pics are being done in a creative way, I thought.  Each kid being taken individually because of social distancing constraints and then being combined for the team shot.

[SKL]

I found driving a bit odd at first.  I worried that there might be an increase in traffic accidents kuz people were out of practice.

I am still wondering how to keep my kids busy all summer with all the camps closed. 

I am also still waiting for one freaking glorious moment of having the house to myself again.  It's been way too long.  😛

[Annie G]

Your normal sounds super super busy, and going from shelter in place to that seems...difficult, at best. Show yourself some grace as you adjust.  Most people are easing in to more activity, but yours sounds like a baby learning to walk one day and running a marathon the next.    
I’m guessing it’s going to be a big adjustment to a lot of people who have grown used to a slower pace. You’re probably not the only baseball mom struggling. 

[SounderChick]

Yeah that seems like you jumped straight into the fire.  I'm jealous of those of you opening up. 

[athena1277]

Before everything shut down, I was on the road nearly every day with kids’ activities.  Their activities haven’t started back yet, but we’ve had ortho appointments and dd17 got her first job a few days ago, so I’m back on the road a lot again.  I’m hoping that dd will finish learning to drive soon, so I only have to take her when I need my van to go somewhere myself.

[ktgrok]

3 hours ago, rebcoola said:

Yeah that seems like you jumped straight into the fire.  I'm jealous of those of you opening up. 

Meh. We opened up and our cases spiked and our positive testing rate about doubled, so...yeah. I imagine with the theme parks, bars, etc opening that will contineue. There are downsides to normal. 

[Frosch]

5 hours ago, Seasider too said:

I don’t think your normal is normal. That sounds like a packed schedule. 

I have been reluctant to re-engage. My extroverts are chomping at the bit, but I’d happily keep this slow, intentional pace as long as possible. DH and I have agreed that before we resume regular things, each of those things is going to be closely evaluated for merit. Not planning to put everything back on the plate.  

This is our thought also.  I am almost resentful of the things that are creeping back into our lives.  I really enjoyed our time with no plans except what we wanted to get done.  We were always very excessively busy.  Since being sheltered at home and forced to stop doing things...I've learned to say "no."  I'm sure that my community will not be happy that I've changed my outlook on things....but I'm happy about it.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Frosch
spelling errors

[KungFuPanda]

I’m having trouble even imagining getting back to normal. So many camps and pools here have closed for the summer. I left town for the first time in three months today. We took cap and gown photos of Dd on campus. The university was a ghost town. It’s still weird here. A friend gave notice at her part time job today. The doctor is ready to open his office but without her girls in school or camp that job can’t work for her. 

[Guest]

I can’t even imagine “normal” yet. That still seems very far away for me. Even just going out for necessities just seems like such a hassle; I only do what is absolutely necessary. 

[lovinmyboys]

Today wasn’t much better, but I think I came up with some ideas to make it smoother. We weren’t really getting dressed two weeks ago, lol, so it is a big adjustment. 
 

It is still weird here too. Lots of things are still closed. Child care is open, but most of the summer camps I know of are not happening this year, so I don’t know what parents of elementary schoolers are doing. It just happens that baseball and tennis are starting up and those are sports my kids play. No soccer here yet, but none of my kids picked soccer. 
 

It is so hard to get the “right” amount of busy. If each of my four kids plays baseball, I feel so busy, but each kid is only doing one thing. 
 

I think the big thing is I got used to having dh here most of the time and then, bam, overnight he went back to work and hasn’t had a day off. I was thinking there would be more warning or  a slow ramp up to a full schedule.

Edited June 7, 2020 by lovinmyboys