What Is Normal

In these unprecedented times, I can’t help but think is this the new normal? People are scared of human contact. People are scared to go see their neighbors, their family. People are scared to take their kids out of the protected shell of their own homes, which now somehow feels like a place you are ‘trapped in’. When did our homes become a place where we are stuck? Is this the new normal?

My 14-month-old son has not been outside the house for over a month and every day I can’t help but ask myself — is this the new normal? Hopefully, this time will be just a small blip on the lifetime of memories he is going to make but I still can’t help but wonder how is this shaping his mind, his nature. Even when we are able to get out on the driveway to get some fresh air, I have to hold him back from running into the street to pet a neighbors dog. I have to pull him back when he sees another kid and wants to run to play with him. I wonder — what am I teaching him.

I want to hope and pray that the answer to that is ‘nothing’.

I don't want him to learn that this is normal. That this is how we live our lives. I don't want him to learn that he can’t go and pet a dog or go play with a neighbor. I don’t want him to learn that ‘outside’ is really not safe. I don’t want him to learn that social distancing is a norm. Because it is not.

I want to tell him that things will be back to the way they were. That he will be able to go out in the world freely without being scared. That I won’t pull him back whenever he is trying to make a new friend. He will be able to go and play at the playground and pet the neighbors dog because I know that it feels like it right now, but THIS indeed is NOT THE NORMAL.