“Our mom group is a ‘Framily.’ There are 6 moms (Jenn, Jess, Kacey, Liz, Rachel and me, Kat). we have more than our fair share of kids, and some pretty supportive husbands/grandparents. All our kids get along and love each other, always asking for playdates (even if we just had ‘framily’ dinner the night before). On any given day we will meet at someone’s house for coffee, for brunch, have a game night, or have an off-the-wall mom’s outing that Jess has talked us all into somehow. We are always together.
Once COVID-19 came into play, we cancelled our upcoming St. Patrick’s Day party for the kids, cancelled bunco, re-scheduled that playdate, and didn’t hug when we saw each other. We all took, and continue to take, the pandemic extremely seriously. We have family members who are essential workers. Our families have loved ones older in age, ones with heart/respiratory conditions, or going through treatment for cancer; we have compromised people we love and are not willing to put at risk!
We have a chat group that we talk in ALL DAY LONG, even before social distancing. Our husbands are always asking, ‘What’d they say now? How can you STILL be talking?’ Every holiday, sporting event, or birthday we are together to celebrate. We have a few cocktails, the husbands gather on the deck to oversee the kids playing in the yard, the wives make a feast and gossip. You can see how this social distancing thing is not something any of us would be good at.
Week one starting into unknown quarantine territory lead to no school, and it was rough. Kids think they’re on spring break, everything is closed, no way to get some peace. Will we have to homeschool? Four days in and we all needed a game night. Going into week two of quarantine, we knew a ‘shelter in place’ situation was headed our way and we needed to find some way to have a SAFE hangout.
Liz came up with the idea on how we could all stay in our safe spots and see each other’s faces. So, we figured out a time we could ditch all the little ones with Dad, or Grandma, or an older sibling. We brought coffee, breakfast, a cozy blanket and a pillow, and we headed to a local park. We pulled our mini vans and one SUV (we will convert her one day!) together with tailgates in a circle, crawled in the back and had a coffee date. Let’s just call it a car-entine.
It was a Friday, one day before we went into a shelter in place and it was a two-hour affair. It cleared all our minds and made the unknown future not look so scary. Seeing our friends faces in person, somehow, made this COVID-19 pandemic not so daunting. And it was SO needed.
Looking forward, we don’t know how long this will last. We are given ideas of ‘shelter in place for two weeks and then we will continue social distancing’ but that two weeks can easily turn into three, then four, if it is not taken seriously. We will continue to have our ongoing chat group and our virtual coffees. We will call each other to vent when things get too heavy or when we have big news. We will take our kids on bike rides or walks to clear their minds, take them on drives past each other’s house just to wave and give distance hugs.
We will celebrate birthdays from our cars, singing along to Rachel’s son on the saxophone, just to make sure our kids feel special on their big day. Your people help you cope with unknowns and share happiness even over the smallest things. I’m lucky enough to have found my people, my framily. I know that we will do everything we need to do, to keep each other’s families safe and sane until we can hug each other again.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Katherine Langsley. Submit your own story here, and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories.
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