Pandemic Parenting is Like Watching a Flower Bloom in the Wrong Season
Some flowers bloom on their own time.
My daughter is 2 ½ years old and says hi to everyone.
If she sees a stranger, she immediately says, “hiyo,” toddler talk for hello. It’s adorable and horrifying at the same time.
Three years ago, when we were preparing for her birth, we had a million worries like any new parent has, but none of them involved a global pandemic.
But at least we got some time to prepare. My hat goes off to any new parents that had a child for the first time during this nightmare.
Parenting in quarantine
After locking ourselves away for months in quarantine and being scared of human interaction (even with our family) we started to loosen up a little bit for the sake of our sanity and overall mental health.
It was during this time that our fearless little wonder’s personality started to emerge.
Maybe it’s all of the music we listen to, or the songs we write on her drum set and keyboard, or the way she belts out her favorite song from Frozen, but now she is expressing her little self, and the musician in me couldn’t be prouder.
She’s stringing big words together.
She calls everyone her friend.
She’s saying things on purpose to make me laugh.
She’s turning into a little girl.
Some flowers bloom on their own time
She’s blooming at the wrong time, like a flower trying to blossom in a snow storm. It’s beautiful to see, just not right now.
Please wait a few months, when the world can nurture you as it should.
But like how you decided to arrive in this world a few weeks early, you have your own plans.
As a relatively new dad of a little girl learning how to express herself in a pandemic and running up to strangers saying hello, each day is terrifying.
My wife and I are trying to be very cautious here to not stifle her expression, but we need to keep her safe as her parents.
Making friends
After we had to take her out of daycare back in March, we decided not to put her back in just yet, which means she is not really interacting with anyone her age, and it worries us a bit as far as her social development is concerned.
We assured ourselves that this situation is temporary (we hope at least), and she will be returning to daycare someday soon. So our only goals right now as her parents are to keep her safe, alive, and do the best we can with everything else.
Luckily, our little wonder has a cousin who lives nearby and she visits him a few days a week to get her social fix.
Whenever we venture to the outside world where she can enjoy the sun and fresh air she needs to blossom, we try to do so in an open and accepting way.
After all, she is only 2 ½, and we don’t want her to be scared of the world just yet. There’s still plenty of time for that.
