Hello and welcome back to the special editions of the Simplicity Diary, where we're considering the question of the coronavirus and the impact that's having on our family life. Now today, well at least in this podcast, I wanted to bring up the question of scheduling, which may seem strange because you may think, well hang on, everything's going to be pretty much closed down in terms of scheduling, so our kids aren't going to have all the clubs, all this, you know, all the after school activities, all the sporting events and so on and so on. But if you're listening to this and your school hasn't closed down yet or things are still poised and a bunch hasn't changed enormously yet, it's almost sure that it will and you can start to dial back the number of scheduled events that your child has in the coming days and weeks so that the change to being at home, should it come, and it seems rather likely for many where schools close, it's not going to seem so abrupt.
Think carefully about just starting to thin out the amount of activities, starting to, if you've got three or four happening a week, then you make it two and then you make it one and you start getting the children ready rather than cramming the activities because, you know, they might not be happening for a couple of weeks. By far the better psychology will be to already start dialing it back. Now, even if your child's school does not close and maybe it won't even close through the whole of this event in the world, dialing back on schedules and having your children be at home more, close to you, is not only smart health-wise in terms of their exposure, but it's smart in terms of their sense of security.
It's smart because if you have them at home more, if you are reading more stories with them, playing more games with them, being together with them a little bit more, that's exactly what they're going to need in order to get through these coming weeks and months. They're going to need that kind of downtime, decompression time, in order for them to be able to better feel that they're going to be okay. So, if this is the case that the schools haven't closed yet or events haven't closed yet or clubs or youth sports leagues are still going on, then you can do that yourself.
Just start dialing it back. Now, it's likely for many of us that those events already have been dialed back. We have no choice.
That's just happened. The clubs, the after-school activities have either voluntarily closed down or they have done it because of health department regulations. Now, in that case, this is not going to be a huge issue, but one thing I do want to mention and kind of emphasize is that for those of us who have our kids in these after-school activities, play dates and so on, who might have struggled with this thing of, well, everyone is doing it and my kids feel disadvantaged if I don't and I've tried to do less, but still I feel they're doing a little bit too much.
Honestly, this is the ideal opportunity to experience life in the slow lane, that it doesn't have to be in the passing lane. You don't have to be metaphorically passing other kids in a kind of race to nowhere, really. This is a ready-made opportunity and excuse because the kids can't push back against you saying, Mom, I want to do this, I want to do that because the things just simply aren't happening.
To basically reset our children's expectations of the number of activities they do, the number of clubs they're engaged in and so on and so on, play dates being a big part of that too, of course. This is such a great time to be able to make those changes and having made them because, as I mentioned, for many of us who have no choice, it might be really worth thinking about, do I go back to it? Honestly, do I go back to having all this stuff happen after school, weekends? Let's just keep this balanced schedule and let's stay with it. Let's not get, as soon as these quarantines and things start opening up again, let's not get back into it.
Let's be very, very discerning about which of those clubs, which of those activities, which of those parties, which of those play dates, which of those music lessons and so on and so on and so on. Maybe in the coming weeks, it's going to be a golden opportunity to then make a decision because, you see, a lot of these things creep up on us as parents. A lot of these clubs, after school activities, all that pace of life and those expectations that the children come to have, it's a slow thing.
It creeps up on us and before we know it, we've got this feeling of, hang on, too much is happening, but how do I stop it? Well, in these weeks and months ahead, it's going to stop. For most of us, that's going to be for sure. It's going to stop.
And so in that way, the decisions we make before our children re-enter back into that stuff will be exactly that, a decision, not just, okay, off we go again. It really will open that opportunity for many, many parents to experience what it's like without that. Now, there could be a tendency of like, okay, the clubs are back on.
Phew, let's just get the kids out of here. This has been too intense. But my advice would be to resist that and use it as a filter and so that when the children do start entering back into all that stuff again, it's going to be judicious.
It's going to be dangerous. Partly because when all these bands become lifted and life starts getting back to this normal, it's not. It's the new normal of too muchness.
People say, well, life's getting back to normal, but I really challenge that. It's not normal for life to move this fast. And we can all recognize that it's not normal for nothing to happen, but there's got to be a middle ground, right? And that's the opportunity that we're going to be given in the time ahead is a chance to hit the middle ground that's really aligned with our values.
And it could really be a time over these next weeks to stop, think about it, and make some decisions so that when these bands do get lifted and there are larger gatherings happening again and all these things now become possible, you're not making a decision at that point. In a week or two, start already thinking about it. Talk to friends, talking to a partner, a husband, wife, extended family if they're on board, and get your plans in place so that when stuff does start flowing again, it is exactly that, a flow and not a flood.
Because our children are going to be a little bit in need of protection in that sense. There's been a lot going on in the world, and when they step back out into it, it's only wise to have them step back out into it gradually. Okay, hope that's helpful.
Bye bye for now.
