You’re Doing a Good Job of Parenting During a Pandemic

We’re all grappling with an ever-evolving world caught in the grips of a serious health crisis, where what we consider as normal changes almost every day. Understandably, many of us feel weighed down by stress and anxiety. But we should all take a collective deep breath and remind ourselves that we have done quite well (thank you very much) in coping, adjusting, and generally doing a good job of parenting during this pandemic.

So, pause for just a moment, between trying to do your work, home schooling your children, and figuring out what to fix for dinner, right when the dog decided this was the appropriate time to chew up your slippers, and give yourself a big pat on the back. You have managed to parent, figure out how to stretch the family budget, and hopefully even work in some fun into your family’s life. You’ve built new routines and found new ways to get more done in less time. You’ve learned to be more creative and solve more problems that you could have ever imagined.

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success is just showing up. So keep showing up, keep talking, and keep sharing. One day—soon we hope—we will be able to look at this time in the rearview mirror and know that we rose to the occasion. We did a good job of parenting during a pandemic.