March 20, 2020

Last night one of my friends who’s on lockdown with her family somewhere in Southeast Asia had a mommy meltdown. Suddenly, without the usual household help – labor is cheap and readily available in certain parts of the world – she finds herself balancing work, life, homeschooling two young kids – while also trying to ensure meals are prepped on time, pets are taken cared of, laundry is done. The list goes on.

I did mention this in my earlier post. This pandemic is also showing that the burden of ensuring a fully-functioning, quality home life still falls pretty much in the shoulders of the female head of the household.

Her frustration stems from the fact that she and her family needed to adjust to their new reality. I told her that her new reality has been the reality of most women in America and perhaps, most Western societies. However, it’s worst from anyone’s end if homeschooling is factored in particularly if the kids are in different age groups. Totally get that.

My managerial mindset kicked in after reading her frustration. Wouldn’t it be wise to also delegate some of those responsibilities to the other members of the household to ease the burden? Team work, divide and conquer and opportunity for teachable moments for the kids as well? Time to set up a schedule?

I remember when I was a child around 8 or 9. My mom was a teacher and kudos to her, she’s always looking for teachable moments. She had a schedule for us on weekdays and a list of assigned chores for each of us (we’re a brood of 5) on weekends. My siblings and I had fun with accomplishing those chores. Cleaning the house on weekends was a riot but it got done and we became better adults as a result. We also each had a piggy bank and if we accomplished our chores on time and as expected, we got a monetary reward.

Something for you moms out there to think about.

This pandemic will force us to think and act differently once it’s over and we all survive it.

Business as usual will no longer work. We need a step change.

Speaking of step change, since it’s almost the weekend, let me step outside and do some weeding in my backyard. Enjoy the weekend and stay safe wherever you are!