For most of us, a three-week Circuit Breaker would have sounded bad enough, but imagine doing a three-month quarantine!
Flora Lim, a digital marketer who is also a social media influencer, shares with us her life in three-month (so far!) quarantine with her two-year old, Nathaniel, as well as what inspired her to start this early.
Fear of the coronavirus led to her self-imposed lockdown as early as January
The self-imposed lockdown started off as a one-week quarantine from the second day of Chinese New Year, when Chinese nationals were still allowed into Singapore, due to “fear and paranoia [getting] the better of [her] as cases began exploding around the world”.
Lim also took a few precautions to prep her family for the long quarantine ahead, including stocking up on “many, many toys, craft supplies and books” to keep her two-year-old occupied, and stocking up on groceries daily with her preferred sites like Little Farms and SuperNature Online to beat the snaking “queues”.
The self-professed tiger mom also adjusted the two-year old’s daily and sleeping schedules to be more productive at home.
“This is so that I can find find small pockets of time to work and take calls,” she says, “in fact, I’m typing this [answers to the email interview] during his nap-time!”
When he’s awake, Lim works nearby to keep an eye on Nathaniel. She suggests toys from Melissa and Doug, which are her “absolute favourites”, as well as Brio train sets that she observes to be especially effective in entertaining her son.
Related: 20 activities to keep your kid occupied during the Circuit Breaker
While take-outs may be the go-to answer for the constant problem of having meals at home for many families nationwide, Lim refrains from ordering in or take out meals due to the constant feeling of paranoia of transmission of the virus.
Instead, she opts for “constant meal planning” with the assistance of her helper. She’d do the cooking herself and sometimes give her helper specific recipes and instructions in order to score more work and rest time.
She also sources her recipes from all over the internet to keep things fresh: “[especially] now with the worldwide lockdown, everybody’s sharing their meals and recipes online all the time”, she notes.
For all the busy parents like herself out there, she recommends Just One Cookbook for easy-to-cook yet delicious Japanese meals to keep picky eaters happy and healthy while at home.
Taking time off to balance work and play is essential during quarantine, and this influencer mom is no exception, stating “Netflix and ice-cream are [her] best friends” during this period.
“At the end of the day it’s what you define as balance so it’s subjective and dependent on mood”, Lim says.
Like most of us, she had faced multiple struggles during the quarantine, stating having to pay two terms worth of fees, only for her son to attend one day before withdrawing him from school as an example.
As for when this mom thinks it’s time to finally step out of the house, she remains positive and hopeful.
“I plan to resume normal life when the Circuit Breaker finally ends, and hopefully we can all do so!”
Her word of advice for worn-out and tired parents out there? “This too shall pass.”
Hear, hear.
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