How To Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: How a book gathering dust on my bookshelf helped me to see my family, my job, and my community in new light in the age of COVID-19

For far too long health care has excluded those who need it most

Working for a public health tech company and fighting social injustices day to day is hard. Being a working mom with a 3-year-old is harder. Being a working mom with a 3-year-old during a global pandemic, while fighting social injustices at a public health tech company is damn near impossible. Somehow, I’ve made it through the last month of quarantine while maintaining at least an ounce of sanity.

Daily I run through the following thoughts:

• How do I care for my elderly grandparents without exposing them to the virus?
• How do I keep myself sane while juggling what is the equivalent of working three full-time jobs all at the same time?
• How do I try to keep my community informed of these challenges, while protecting my, and my family’s health by keeping my distance?

When I think about life pre-COVID-19, I think of all the challenges that existed then, not just with me, but with my community.

I live in The Bronx, something I’ve always been proud to represent, but let’s face it: The Bronx isn’t Beverly Hills.

Historically, The Bronx has long been known as one of the poorest congressional districts in America. Now during the era of COVID-19, we also have the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the five boroughs. The Bronx has long been challenged on many basic needs, like clean air and healthy food, but today challenges in my community are at an all time high.

To be completely honest, I don’t know how we’re coping with this as a community day by day, because I’ve been so involved with LIFE (see above), and that’s okay.

All of these questions are extremely hard to answer, but I’ve learned through this pandemic that the hard questions are often the most important to ask…and I don’t need to have all the answers to focus on keeping my family safe.

Keeping my community safe is harder, because it requires creating more equitable access to resources in high demand. To truly feel safe, we need better access to tests, food, medication, mental health services and so much more…in the absence of that, what my community and my city really need right now, is empathy.