CEBU CITY, Philippines — Like many families, the Ruffolos have been relegated to the confines of our home.
We live in a 69-square-meter, two-storey home in Liloan, Cebu, Philippines.
We have been staying at home for almost a month now after our local government here announced an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) where residents are mandated to stay home to prevent the further spreading of COVID-19. Each household in my town received what is now dubbed as an “ECQ pass.” The rule is one ECQ pass per household. This pass gives us clearance to get out of our homes to buy food and/or medicines or go to the hospital for emergency cases.
Food wise, we’ve been very lucky. We live in a subdivision with many entrepreneurs, our dear neighbours who sell food items including fresh milk, fruits, vegetables, bread, cooking oil, eggs, frozen food, chicken, ready-to-eat dishes, and (would you believe it?) a great selection of snacks and desserts ranging from maja, ice cream, mango float, hopia, French fries, milk bars, halu-halo, and tuna pies.
I’ve been working from home even before COVID-19 happened and that has, in so many ways, prepared me to manage boredom and anxiety which come with being on “house arrest.”
When you’re alone and single, it is a breeze to get through the day with movie marathons and unlimited book reading.
But it can be challenging when you have children. My thoughts are with my fellow working mothers who are still adjusting to the work-from-home set-up.
That is why I am sharing some tips on how you can establish some semblance of order in your home. Note that I have six-year-old boy-girl twins and a four-year-old cutie pie so these suggestions are based on our personal experiences.
Establish your quarantine itinerary.
I don’t keep count of the days that we’ve been on this extended staycation. But from memory, we have been practicing social distancing even before the local government announced about implementing an ECQ on March 30. However, it was only the weekend of April 4 & 5 that I started to work on a “quarantine itinerary” because the last weeks have been all about getting through each day. (I’m a Mom to three feisty children and I am also managing ADD and anxiety. More on that in the next post!)
So I made a generic quarantine itinerary for our activities with the children. See below:
I’ll be lying if I say that we strictly follow this schedule. Some days, the children sleep at 8 or 9 p.m. Some days, I just do away with the schedule and be spontaneous. On Easter Sunday, for instance, I had the children watch “Supergirl” in the kitchen at 3 p.m. Last Friday, April 3, they watched the movie “Ritchie Rich” until 9 p.m.
But it helps to have this so we can always have a guide to follow and go back to. It gives us order, which we need in this house.
Get them to do household chores.
I find it easier to plan our activities once I plotted the itinerary.
First on the list: household chores!
We have a stay-in helper but I never encourage my children to let Ate Joy do all the work. I also do not assign tasks based on their gender. Every single one has to learn how to wash the dishes, wash clothes, water the plants, wipe the table, clean up the living room, sweep the floor, and cook.
Write letters.
I have very expressive children. When they’re happy, they write me a letter. When they’re sad, there’s a letter for that. When they’re upset, there’s a letter slipped under my bedroom door or my work table. Letter-writing is something that I did when I was a child. My mother got me started on it. My father started his career as an international seafarer when I was six years old and I would observe my mother writing letters to him. I was a pretty inquisitive child so to get me out of her hair, my mother thought about having me write letters to my father too. I improved my English writing ability that way. I also learned grammar and spelling. I’m passing that on to my children. Warning for impatient parents: this can be time-consuming because you will either dictate the words to them or you will have to write on a sheet of paper the “letter” that they will follow.
To whom will they send the letter, you may ask? Improvise! Perhaps you can tell them to write to Santa Claus or to COVID-19 frontliners or a confirmed patient.
My twins got on with this after they turned six years old but it’s perfectly fine to expose them to it even at age 4. Even if it means only holding a pencil or a crayon.
Start a garden.
Ah! Hands down my favorite activity as of April 6, 2020 (the date when Alanis Morissette was supposed to be in the country for a concert but she had to postpone because of… you know what!). We have limited space in the house and there is no readily available garden soil and plants to use for planting so we made do with whatever we have.
April 6, Monday morning before 6 a.m., we all woke up to plant the stalks of kangkong. I earlier advised my husband to save the part of green onions with roots so we can also replant them. Our neighbor, who owns a rose farm, sells beautiful flowers to us at incredibly low price and my daughter Antoinette had the brilliant idea to plant them so we can have a rose garden for two to three days. The roses wither but the stalks are alive so we set aside recycled water bottle containers with soil for them. The children are expected to water them twice a day.
I got them started on kangkong because they are easy to plant and they grow fast!
Teach them to cook food.
We still have delivery service from where we live (limited though but I’m not complaining). But I am now enjoying the daily chore of preparing food for the family. We’re eating better food actually and we’re not spending money on restaurant dine-ins and unlimited buffets.
Read books.
I couldn’t keep this off the list. We are the Reading Ruffolos after all. I’m so happy that the twins can now read and that they run to me to ask about unfamiliar words. We own hundreds of storybooks in this home. If not for this disease, I would have started our little free library here in Casa Ruffolo Uno. I would have been spending my Thursdays at the Cebu City Public Library. But these are different and difficult times and staying at home is the best thing that we can do to “flatten the curve” or to prevent this disease from spreading any further.
Despite this global pandemic, I feel very blessed and privileged to have money, house, food, and family to be with at this time of crisis here in the Philippines. I am not complaining. I do not see any reason to because I have a job, my husband has a job, and we are all together as a family to weather this through. My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs and have very little or no resources to survive each day. Our prayers are with you. I’m sincerely hoping that government help gets to you.
Please know that you are not alone and that our family is doing our share to make life a little better for you.
I welcome suggestions for activities that we can add to this itinerary.
How are you all doing these days?
