What Happened to Wednesdays?

In “normal” times, the busyness of Wednesday afternoons is a running joke in our family. After a day of work, our family schedule typically looked like this.

• 3:00 p.m.: The kids come home from school.
• 3:45 p.m.: Leave the house to drive my daughter to Hebrew School for a 4:00 p.m. start.
• 4:45 p.m.:  Leave the house to drive my son to his piano lesson for a 5:00 p.m. start.
• 5:30 p.m.:  My son and I hop back into the car after piano to pick up my daughter at Hebrew School at 5:45 p.m.
• 6:00 p.m.:  And in the fall and spring, we add a softball game or practice for my daughter into the mix.
• 8:00 p.m. and on:  Late dinner, homework, showers, a little downtime, and then bed. I’d usually hop on and off my computer to complete any work that I may have missed while I was out and about on my tour around town.

Another thing to note is that my husband typically has a heavy business travel schedule, and when he is not traveling, he teaches online classes. As a result, he is often available to take the kids to their activities. It makes me giggle that most of my children’s activities fall on the same day, back-to-back. Because, of course, it does! Now, none of it is necessarily far, and I’d never go as far as to say it’s a hardship, but there is a slight feeling of driving around and around on a racetrack. But I never place, nor do I receive any medals!

But the last many Wednesdays have been different. And will be so for the foreseeable future. As crazy as our Wednesday afternoons were – they were our Wednesday afternoons. Our routine. And routine often brings comfort. You know what you’re doing, where you’re going, and what to expect. 

Our “new” Wednesdays include distance learning for my children, who are in 10th grade and 6th grade. My husband’s heavy business travel has been eliminated for the time being due to COVID-19, yet he is still in the throes of work and facilitates online training sessions. I’ve been furloughed, so I am not working for the time being. So we are all home. All. Day. Every. Single. Day.

At first, our Wednesdays were a bit of a novelty. And I’m not going to lie – I love not having to wake up at 6 a.m. to get the kids up and ready for the bus. My son was adapting well to the online school sessions and assignments. My daughter wasn’t loving it but was chugging along as necessary, even with her complaints. Wednesdays now also include a Hebrew School Zoom for my daughter at 3 p.m. and a piano lesson Zoom for my son at 5 p.m. Alright, we can do this. Maybe this will work out?

Until a recent Wednesday, when the last sense of peace I got was when I opened my eyes that morning.

First, I got emails from not one, not two, but three of my 10th-grade teachers saying he’s been late with his assignments. This led to not one but two outbursts from the other adult in the house. (Said the other adult did not know about the third teacher – Shhhh). Why didn’t you do your work? Not surprisingly, the 10th grader didn’t have much of an answer. A couple of shoulder shrugs, and he proceeded into his room for the next few hours to finish the work.

I then urged the 6th grader to join her Google Meet, even though it was optional. She flat out refused, saying, “hate Google Meets!””Luckily, she continued her work, but this foreshadowed her encounters with Google Meet’s newly popular cousin, Zoom.

(Hey, 10th grader – did you do all of your work?  No more emails from teachers!)

Then the Hebrew School Zoom at 3 p.m. My daughter calls in but does not turn on her video (again, foreshadowing). She simultaneously sneaks in a game of Roblox – do I give her props for attempting to master her multi-tasking skills?

Next, the 10th grader’s 5 p.m. Zoom piano call goes off without a hitch. During this time, my 6th grader shares some tween angst, claiming no one likes her, as she reviews a situation from the weekend in which she believed friends were ghosting her.

(Hey, 10th grader – did you do all of your work? No more emails from teachers!)

At dinner, the 6th grader declares she will not attend a 7 p.m. Zoom call with her softball team because two of the ghosters will be on it. The husband, whom I just finished sharing with my BFF, says it’s been pretty nice having him home and not traveling, but he turns on his third tantrum of the day.

Amidst an almost panic attack, my 6th grader turns on the softball Zoom call at 7 p.m. – sans camera. When the coach asks her to do so, she falls apart. When they start calling on the girls to go around and talk about what they’ve been doing, she begs and begs to leave the call. I nod yes, and she leaves the call.

Upon this, the husband turns on tantrum #4! I kid you not! “You got off the call? I guess you must not want to play softball? You are done with that as well, won’t ever play again!” At this point, the 6th grader is crying so hard that I thought she would pass out. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Mom here, who consistently preaches to her other half not to talk in absolutes, “like ”never“ and ”ever,” is the one left to pick up the pieces and ends up with a shirt full of snot.

(Hey, 10th grader – did you do all of your work? No more emails from teachers!)

That was not our Wednesday! Certain aspects of this day need to be addressed with the people I live with, but we’ll take that offline! 

Most days during the pandemic have been fine. Patience, cooperation, and communication are waning, but we typically have more positives than negatives. A little Groundhog Day, but it’s tough to complain when all four of us are together, and knock on wood, healthy.

My brain knows that we don’t need to ask for more. This Wednesday, though? My emotions tell me that this was a COVID-19 Wednesday. 

No doubt, all humans have tough and trying times. But we would not have had THIS day if not for COVID-19. This was COVID-19, Self-Distancing, and a quarantine-like lifestyle.

If you’ve been hitting more walls as the weeks go by, I hear you have. If you’ve had a COVID-19 Wednesday, I see you. Days like this make that “when will this ever end?!” feeling shine brightly.

I find myself longing for our normal crazy Wednesdays! COVID-19 stole our Wednesdays. It stole our normal. It stole our comfort. When will we get our Wednesdays back? When will we get our normal back? Better yet, will we? The answer to these questions – and countless others – is yet to be determined.