Day 91: Do I Want This to End?

Day 91: June 25, 2020
Global Cases: 9, 702, 386; Deaths: 490, 989
Egypt Cases:  61, 130 Deaths: 2, 533

Dina Abdel Fattah
Assistant Professor,
Acting Chair of the Department of Economics

A typical Wednesday evening would have me saying, “no more running around in the streets taking my daughter from one extracurricular activity to another”.

Well, that particular Wednesday was different; I went back home with the kids and never left the house since then. And then, a great deal of confusions around what are we doing with our semester, what are the kids doing with their schooling, all you can hear of conversations around the house include three terminologies: coronavirus, remote teaching and online learning.

Three months of this, I can now reflect on a day of schooling for my daughter while my summer teaching is already in progress.

I wake up to my alarm at 7 am after I have snoozed it for what may seem like 10 times. I sit in my kitchen (the best working station I have so far, internet OK, lighting perfect, comfortable table and chair, just wouldn’t work good enough for my classes).

I get to my laptop and respond to tens of emails and send about ten new ones. Suddenly, and after what only feels like 10 minutes later, my 7-year-old is fully awake, and I hear a faded sleepy sound saying “Good morning mommy, what do I have to do today?”

It was only 8:30 am when she had breakfast and off she started with her online schooling. Changing the routine of how we do things for the fourth time in three months, we decided to work on the English writing, the comprehension and solve some math exercises. I open the links to the classes on google classroom and print the supporting worksheets, and get her all set up, so I can run to my desk (not the kitchen this time unfortunately) where I get started with my own zoom class at 10am.

I lock the door and get absorbed in my teaching and discussions with my students, which we are very much enjoying.

By the time I am done with my teaching, my 3-year-old has already been awake and asking as well “do I have anything to do today?” We check the WhatsApp group of the nursery and print all the working sheets they have sent us. For the hours until 4pm when we start thinking what we’re having for lunch, I am between supporting, checking and uploading what my 7-year-old has been working on for her teacher to check and comment on, get her ready for the online “google meets class” to be followed by her online ballet class while also “teaching” my three-years-old what a square is and what a circle is, along with taking four or five phone calls in the middle.

The husband is back from work (he will definitely bring us the coronavirus home from work!!), we eat lunch and I try to engage them in as many activities as I can until it’s bed time for them, and proper work time for me.

It’s now daddy-daughters quality time doing one of two of their best bonding activities, puzzles or going through Netflix looking for a family (how can it be family though if I am not watching with them!!) movie that they can watch together. They go to bed, I work for couple more hours (5-6 hours to be more precise) until it’s almost midnight and then I go to bed to wake up at 7am again strictly repeating the same day.

For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.

Am I enjoying this? Do I want it to end? Do I want to go back to that “normal” life? Do I want a modified version mixing the two opposing life styles? I haven’t made up my mind yet. One thing I have decided though – this lockdown has actually been the gift of time that we have been looking for. We are having more than enough time for us to share our kids their lives, worries and responsibilities (it’s now their responsibility to learn) and for them to see what we go through every day at work.

From now on, no more running around picking up and dropping off a million places for swimming, ballet, art, piano, French, and the list can go on. We have sensed the slowed down pace of life, we love it, we enjoy it, we just need to mix in some fun outdoor activities to hold the balance.