I don’t think the children will remember the two cancelled birthday parties in March. (We intend to make those up whenever we can this year.) I hope that we remember instead the wonderful times we’ve had since I was able to work from home. We feel blessed that I can work remotely: I know that many of our friends and neighbors are not so blessed. But still there are many of us who can work over WiFi, and for that I am thankful that this pandemic hit in 2020 and not 2000. The pure economic upheaval would have been more broad and deep without the technological capital we have to video and teleconference with ease.
It’s made FaceTime with remote family not only possible, but more frequent than it had been. Early on I even received a phone call from an estranged brother, from whom I hadn’t received a call in over two years.
My kids miss their friends and school, but they’ve fallen in love with our backyard’s best climbing tree and we’ve played outside a lot.