The # Covid19 outbreak forced the nation to go into lockdown . Schools , offices , markets are closed for the last many days . Children are at home and other family members too , apart from those involved in essential services . Being primary care takers of family and home managers , women’s job has turned to be much more than the basic essential service during the quarantine period . If you are a SAHM your responsibilities have been doubled up because of more kitchen work and more family care . If you have been a working woman and now-a-days you have to work from home , your responsibilities have been tripled up .
Lockdown 2.0 has started and it’s time to go for Life management 2.0 for women .
Woman and Quarantine
Quarantine period brings more responsibilities for women
More kitchen work
Women , being the primary care taker of family , have to spend much more time in the kitchen , fulfilling demands of all family members . Maids’ help is a distant dream but demands of family’s hunger and taste buds are a daily scream . Oh ! It sounds poetic !
More house cleaning work
With the spread of pandemic disease , women are more concerned about house cleaning and sanitizing . Mopping , laundry , sanitizing nooks and corners consumes much of the time .
Time with children
With children all the time at home , mothers have to take extra care of them . Keeping them busy is a big task in its own . It has become one of major concerns of women of family that kids don’t lag behind in studies , learn something new , and also don’t get bored staying all the time locked up .
Woman’s own ‘work-from-home’ responsibility
Being a working woman , if they have to work from home now-a-days , it has become a difficult task handling work and home simultaneously . No doubt women are multitasking but the overdose of family chores could leave them exhausted till they finally sit for their own work .
Family peace
With all family members at home , sometimes family peace becomes difficult to be maintained . Quarantine already is accompanied by some negative feelings like fear , sadness , anger or sleep troubles. Amidst all this , it becomes a real struggle if family peace gets disturbed because of one or other reason . Women’s emotional health may get disturbed .
Life management for women during Quarantine
Do take care of yourself
Don’t be in kitchen all the time
Kitchen work won’t rest unless you rest . Make a time schedule of daily family meals and also day wise schedule for satisfying everyone’s taste buds .
- Share the cooking and other kitchen work with others as far as possible (My daughter has learnt kneading dough during lockdown and it’s a great help to me . My husband hasn’t learnt anything new in kitchen work but his tea has improved .)
- There’s no need to stress yourself every now and then looking at the littered kitchen shelves .
- Do try new recipes , but at your own pace , in enjoying the process . Do you know how you can take cooking as self-care ?
Engage yourself in a creative activity
Quarantined with more responsibilities on your head can make you very stressed . You should involve yourself in an activity that keeps your mind happily engaged – read a book , learn small gardening tips or try hands at painting . It can be great if you keep yourself a target of 3-4 books during the lockdown period .
- Do one productive thing daily.
- Try journalling before bed .
- Reading is one of the best exercises for your mind .
Fix your ‘work-from-home’ time
To go efficiently about your ‘work-from-home’ work , fix your time for that and let your family strictly know about it .
Netflix with family
In our case , movies are a great relaxation at the end of the day . Comedy , Thriller , Children movies , all are a hit . Make yourself a pack of popcorn and enjoy together .
- Enjoy happy family time with Netflix .
- You can show some inspiring movies to your kids . ( Hamid , Dhanak to name a few)
Exercise within your room
Exercise always takes a back seat because of some or the other excuse. When it were routine days , you wanted Time for exercise and now when Time is granted , you are excusing it for more family responsibilities . But whose responsibility is your own fitness ? Don’t let quarantine make your lifestyle sedentary .
- Try yoga within your room
- Take online exercise class
- Meet up for fitness on zoom with your friends .
- It’s a good idea to take skipping as a challenge along with your kids .
- Learn how to be fit in 30 minutes
You may want to read : Fitness for women over 40
Spiritual time
How long you have been thinking that you want to start devoting some time in spiritual activities ? It’s time to start now . It has an immense power to keep you stress free .
- Read a spiritual book.
- Meditate for 10 minutes .
- Learn a new mantra and recite it daily .
- Be active about your spiritual health.
I was reading someone’s blog yesterday and she had mentioned about a bhajan . I liked it , searched for it on youtube , wrote it in my diary and reciting it made me feel good .
Focus on nutritious diet
Lockdown period may push you towards trying new recipes and you may end up eating more of fried foods . Keep in mind that you are not having excess of fatty , sugary foods .
- Choose fibre over fried foods
- Don’t have excess of tea/coffee , it might give you sleep troubles
Call your friends/family
Good friends are nothing but happiness . Video call them and feel as you all are near to each other . Check your contact list and call those too with whom you haven’t been in contact for long .
Play / Craft with children
Playing some games or trying some new craft with children is a good way to spend time productively and make yourself happy . You and kids all are busy that way .
- Try playing word game or quiz with children.
- The craft or DIY activities are advised to women around perimenopause .
- Tiktok may also prove to be stressbuster . Just try !
Music / Dance/ Storytelling
Music and Dance release ‘happy chemicals’ in brain which can de-stress you . Listen to music as per your mood , dance on songs or zumba as you like .
- Dancing would tire you and you get a better sleep .
- Storytelling can be fun to you as well your child. ( I recently read a story about chyavanprash to my daughter )
Lockdown period and all day streaming Corona news have high chances of making us tensed . But you should take all precautions to flatten the curve and consider it as a time to improve yourself . Emerge out as a better version of yourself after quarantine is over !
Stay Home , Stay safe !
Hey did you come across the poem ‘And the people stayed home’ on social media ? Here it is if you haven’t :
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