In the beginning of quarantine, I saw a bunch of memes floating around about people filing for divorce after being stuck in the house with their partner for so long. I’m not going to lie, after the first two weeks, I was ready to throw in the towel lol. Ok not really, but it seemed like we just couldn’t get it together. The new schedule and routine was something we just weren’t used to. We had operated as ships passing in the night for so long, we rarely found time to pause unless it was on vacation.
Here’s 5 ways how pausing has helped us:
- Communication: Prior to COVID-19, everything we needed to communicate about, happened via text. What’s for dinner? Who’s picking Karter up? What time will you be home? The list goes on. Being home and present with one another has given us opportunities to connect in real time.
- Parenting: We have learned so much about Karter since we’ve been home with him full-time. We’ve even been able to buckle down and get potty training accomplished. We are almost 100% there! He loves to dance, so we have a dance party every evening. He also loves to see us interacting with one another, and prefers family time way more than he does one-on-one time.
- Self-care: Seeing how much time we each spend taking care of Karter has really allowed us to understand when the other person needs to pause and recharge. Whether its a few hours for me to pamper myself, or giving him a few hours to hang with the fellas (social distancing of course), we both understand and see first-hand how self-care helps us to be better partners and parents.
- Health: Every time we go to the grocery store, I begin to cringe at checkout. I’m tired of spending money on food! However, we’ve been much more intentional about the foods we’re putting in our bodies, and we’re not blowing money on take out like we used to. I’ve even motivated him to start working out more often. Shout out to the #MillennialMammaMoves crew!
- Dating: I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying “date your spouse.” Now don’t get me wrong, we haven’t had a shortage of dates since becoming parents, but dates these days are different. They somehow have much more intention behind them. After going hard for days and weeks at a time, we look forward to the alone time we get. Whether that’s sitting in the backyard after Karter goes to bed, or watching a Verzuz challenge on Instagram, and debating who won each round; the time we’ve designated for just us is time we get to reconnect on the simple things in life. We don’t need to spend $250 on dinners to have a date. Spending $20 on authentic Mexican tacos and sitting in the trunk to eat them are the simple things that bring us back centered.
1 COMMENT
Raushanah
4 years agoLove this and hope to be mindful of these things in the future with my spouse!! ❤❤