Take Care

I’m going to be honest, I have been thinking and overthinking about school since March. Since we got the call that we weren’t going back after spring break, I have been thinking about my kids at home and my students at school. There *may* have been two days in June when I didn’t think about school. When my brain was totally on summer break. But then someone would say, “what’s going on with school?” and that would start up days and weeks of more anxious thoughts about school. Would they make me return to campus? Would they make my kids return to campus? How will I teach while my kids at home are learning? Will our wifi bandwidth be able to support my three kids, myself, my husband, and my father-in-law on video calls at the same time? There were (and are) so many unanswered questions.

I’m so grateful that my school district decided to push the start date back for us. It gives us time to work things out, thoughtfully plan the schedules, and practice our new skills. But, it also gives us time to overthink. That’s all my brain does now. I think and talk about school. I really cannot talk about ANYTHING else. My husband is pleading with me to talk about something else. Even the podcast we have been listening to together has been about education. I can talk about school or what we’re going to eat for dinner that day. That’s it. My brain has no space for anything else. And it’s exhausting. I need a break and school hasn’t even started! I don’t want to take a break from working because there is SO MUCH TO DO, but my brain needs a break. My brain is begging me to take care of myself mentally. And I’m sure my body is begging me to take care of it physically (which I haven’t been doing these past few months).

I’ve written about self care before and you can read the article here (it’s helpful); but this time it’s different. A lot of the regular ideas for self care are not do-able during this uncertain time of Covid. While I would LOVE to pamper myself and go get my nails done, go get a massage, or go eat queso in a restaurant with a friend; I’m not going to take that risk. I feel anxious just walking into Target with a mask on, staying far away from others for 15 minutes to pick up our much loved snacks and sparkling water — no way am I putting my feet into something other people have put their feet into and letting someone touch them! ACK!

So, how do we, the care-takers of the world, take care of ourselves during this pandemic while we are working around the clock to make sure our students can get an education? I’ve come up with a few ways to make sure you don’t forget you.

1. Go outside everyday. I know, it’s HOT (at least in Texas it is). I didn’t say walk three miles — although that would be AWESOME). Just go outside. For 15 minutes. Without looking at your phone.

2. When your friend asks you about school, ask them to change the subject. I know we are the “go to” people for our friend groups. They want to know if we know more than what the school is telling them. Nope. We don’t know anymore than the parents. Tell them that and move on.

3. Play games. My whole family is playing Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch. For real. We have three switches in our house for 7 people. We have three islands divided amongst us. We visit each other’s islands, send each other gifts, and talk about turnip prices. My son might be mildly obsessed, but guess what…there are NO SCHOOLS on Animal Crossing! Find your game. My kids also like to play Uno.

4. Go for a drive (by yourself or with a loved one). Turn on the music or a podcast and just take in the sights as you drive.

5. Ask a friend to social distance with you on your driveway, back yard, patio, etc. We’ve had social distance dates as a whole family, my kids have had separate people come over in the backyard, and my husband and I have each gone to hang with a friend while being socially distant. It helps so much. We are all always in a good mood afterwards.

6. Facetime or Zoom with a friend. I have a group of friends that get together on Zoom once every two weeks. We just chat for two hours. It’s wonderful.

7. Don’t give up your hobby! I still meet with my book club once a month — on Zoom. But we still meet.

8. Find a new calming hobby (unless doing something new stresses you out). My husband recently got interested in aquariums with live plants. It’s a process. But we now have a small aquarium with some live plants in it and are very excited for the day we can add fish! It doesn’t take a lot of his time and it makes us all happy just to look in at the swaying plants and ask him how his “plant babies” are. He and I also invested in electric bikes and went on several rides before it turned 100 degrees out. We will go out again when it’s not 100 degrees outside.

9. Get up and walk around your house. During my Zoom breaks from training, I just get up and walk around. I say hi to the people in my house, pet the dog, go outside for a minute, get a drink and just stay standing. My kids ask me if I’m finished for the day. Nope. Just on a 15 minute break. I’m just standing around.

10. Take your vitamins, drink plenty of water and get some rest! Don’t stay up until 1:00 in the morning working. Just don’t. It will all eventually get done.

I hope you are doing some of these things for yourself already and I hope this has inspired you to do more for yourself. As teachers, we are natural caretakers — but we have to remember to take care of ourselves also!

Yes, we are learning new skills and yes it is stressful. However, I’m confident that we will have our lesson plans finished for the first week of school. I’m also confident that some things will go wrong. There will be technical problems. But if we are taking care of ourselves and being mindful of our mental states, we will be able to get through it with a smile like we always do!

With that in mind I’m going to go watch a 90s movie, probably one starring Julia Roberts, as part of my self care this evening!