Life
18 Moms Share The Most Important Thing They Accomplished This Pandemic
Don't worry, no one finished their novel.
The trials the pandemic has inflicted on parents, and mothers specifically, are too numerous to name. As COVID has persisted, and with it a way of life that still seems unbelievable after we’ve been living it for almost a year — anyone else still wake up and ask, Wait, how is this happening? — the thing we hear parents telling each other most often is, “We just have to get through it.” Even those who entered the land of remote school-work-everything secretly thinking THIS was when they would finally write the book, get in shape, get a hobby, learn Italian, organize every crevice of the house they don’t leave, have abandoned those quaint delusions. If you’re a parent, especially one supervising remote school while working full time, this time is not about productivity, it is about getting your crew through the day somewhat sanely and with minimal COVID exposure. And if you do that even most of the time, you win. That’s the achievement. That’s the whole prize. If you manage to take care of yourself in the process, you’re off the charts.
Amid a year of so much loss, when it’s easy to think about all we’re missing and not doing, January feels like a good time to pause and celebrate what an extraordinary thing it has been just to keep going. To do that, Romper and Mom 2.0 asked mothers which feat of fortitude or imagination or just survival they are most proud of amid all of the totally, completely, not-even-remotely-foreseeable things asked of them since this time last year. Here are some of their answers:
Staying The Course
"Keeping my job"
"Keeping sane! Staying in school, working overnights, Mom-ing alone all day, everyday, lost a lot this yr."
"I didn’t kill my sourdough starter."
Stepping Up
"Helping my son through his allergies as best as I possibly could"
"As tough as DI has been, I did teach my daughter a lot over this time. Especially in math."
"Drawing closer to my family through spending even more time with them."
"Being more present"
"My kids will come out of this almost unaffected...as we have kept it off of their plates."
"Starting a grant to help support working moms in film cover the cost of childcare!"
Putting Your Own Mask On First
"Finding my boundaries and standing up for myself"
"Learning how to BREATH deeply and pause"
-@kristinhallett
"It cracked me open to start writing, again"
Asking For Help
"Admitting I was having mental health issues and reaching out for help"
"Communicating that this is all hard and connecting with a therapist to help cope with it all."
Taking A Leap Anyway
"Starting my own business"
"Birthing my 10 lb. baby boy!"
"Got pregnant and started a small business at the same time! So I have '2' babies on the way"
Getting To The Other Side
"We made it."
