Fond Memories From Our First COVID Lockdown
When we got ‘stuck’ with our 3 young sons 24/7 for six weeks
I chuckled to myself when I saw this photo reappear through my Facebook memories from two years ago. In April 2020, we had our first COVID lockdown, known as the ‘Circuit-Breaker’, in Singapore.
Back then, I was stuck with my husband, our 3 sons aged 3, 6, and 8, and my father-in-law, in a tiny 4-room flat. My husband had to conduct his meetings in our bedroom, so I was the primary caregiver to entertain and care for our kids. Being highly sensitive and empathic, I felt squashed in my chest and a huge weight on my shoulders upon hearing the announcement of the Circuit Breaker. I think we spent six weeks together in this confined space, not being able to eat out or enjoy our time outdoors much.
And of course, there was huge fear and anxiety about what could happen to our family, our country, and all over the world. Maintaining good mental health is critical for our young family too.
Two Treasured Memories With My Sons
I’m so thankful to have this photo that brought up beautiful memories of my sons. Back then, I entertained my 3-year-old more in the daytime while we indulged our older boys with more device entertainment and outdoor running, and at night, I got my 6- and 8-year-olds to sleep in their bedroom, while my husband coaxed our 3-year-old to sleep in our master bedroom.
I journaled actively on Facebook, and it’s so healing to revisit those memories as Singapore starts to loosen its safety measures in late April.
Here are a couple of treasured memories I had with my sons.
#1. Sketching Buses for my 3-year-old
My 3-year-old was so obsessed with buses that it drove me crazy during those times. He would play with toy buses, only watch YouTube videos about buses, and he kept pestering me to sketch buses. The frustrating thing about sketching buses for him was that after I sketched it on his etch-a-sketch board, he would erase it immediately and demand me to sketch a new bus again!
This bus (shown in the featured image above) was sketched based on an internet image. It’s one of my proudest achievements during that lockdown period. Previously, I only bothered to draw a lopsided outline of the bus and some wheels.
I feel so relieved that my son, who’s turning five soon later this year, has finally started to draw his own drawings. He can draw double-decker buses and even Spiderman now!
This was drawn and colored by my son in March this year. I’m a proud mama!
#2. Writing hilarious bedtime stories with my older kids
I wanted a fun way to help my 3-year-old learn more about letters and to encourage my older sons to write stories at the same time. So, I came up with this new activity. One of my two older boys would randomly select a letter of the day, and we would collect nouns, adjectives, and verbs that start with this letter.
Each night, I’d take my laptop and get my two older boys to contribute sentences filled with words that start with this letter. Then I’d share these stories on my Facebook feed.
Here’s one of the stories that still sounds so creative and hilarious to me:
A Letter D story Chapter One Dino is a dragon who lives in a dark, creepy cave in Dragon World. Dragon world had an enemy — Dinosaur World! Dinosaur World and Dragon world fought many times over the past decade. The dragons always won! But then, a giant dazzling dumpling made of diamonds and duck meat. came diving in between two worlds and separated them. Finally, there was peace. Diamonds and duck meat exploded out of the dumpling! The Dinosaurs and Dragons were so delighted! Then Dino dive into the duck meat and danced dinodecently! Dino didn’t know what was happening! He said “Dum-Dum!” Then he saw another dumpling diving down, but this time, only duck meat exploded out! Dino said, “I have a delicious desire! Let’s eat the dinosaurs!” Then Dino dived into the dinosaurs and made a disaster. Then more dumplings dived down, and there was peace again!
Chapter Two Peace was denied. There was no Peace! The dragons combined to form a gigantic dragon! Then they figured out what was causing the dumplings to fall from the sky — the Dumpling Dumper! The Dumpling Dumper likes to dump dumplings! The Dumpling Dumper then decided to dump himself in between Dinosaur world and Dragon world. Then Dinosaurs and Dragons became friends! Dino hugged one of the dinosaurs that was called Dippopotamus. THE END
Last year, I’m so happy to have found a wonderful teacher who teaches my two boys to write creative stories in English and Chinese. The stories they write are still based heavily on violence and ‘no peace’, which made me laugh out loud when I revisited this Letter D story!
Closing Thoughts
I feel helpless and sad about the lives, relationships, and jobs that were lost over this period. I also feel this responsibility to not let myself spiral down with survivor guilt, and to keep treasuring the fact that my family is still safe, healthy, and bonding well together.
Looking back at those memories, I remembered how they ignited very little joy in me, in the midst of the heavy overwhelm, frustration, anxiety, fear, and sadness at that time.
I am so grateful to be in this more spacious energetic state when I can look upon these cherished memories with fondness. We have since moved to a larger home for more than a year now, and the new increased spaciousness is such a gift for our growing family.
I truly appreciate Colleen Adrian’s parenting article that offers so many helpful suggestions that were written in a way that feels so gentle and reassuring to me as a parent. I love that she works as a mentor for parents of sensitive kids. This is such sacred work that is so needed in the world.
Dear Colleen, do take a look at this lovely publication, which you can apply to be a writer for too.
