Surviving COVID with Kids at home // How to stay sane and still get stuff done

Hey, Starfish. So I want to share something incredibly vulnerable and real with you. Bunny Young here. And when Covid hit and both of my kids, 1's 3 and 1's 9 now, suddenly were home with me, I thought for sure that as the CEO of five companies and a retired therapist and an entrepreneur, that I got this in my head. It looks something like out of the COVID of Home and Garden, but around five or six weeks into it, magically, it became a scene out of Animal House. So somehow, reality set in, and I realized that I was going to need to think about things in a little bit different of a way. And so one morning, I Woke up at 5am can't tell you why, but I was inspired to do something about this. Not create a magic pill for all parents on how to survive Covid with kids at home, but being a retired therapist and now an entrepreneur, naturally I wanted to fix and fulfill these needs. I was like that robot from Robots the movie that's like, see a need, fill a need. So if you're a parent, hopefully you're going to get that reference. And if you're not a parent, then just stay tuned because at the end of this video, I'm going to give you the tools anyway, and I can promise that they impact your sanity whether you're a parent or not. And it'll be a little bit of comedic relief for you to watch this. Anyway, so when you are, I'm gonna share exactly the steps and just a few of the things so that you can get started literally right after this video. And I want to give it all to you, but I don't want to overwhelm you. So we're just gonna get started with a couple of things. But at the end of the video, you're gonna have the ability to go and get all my wisdom, all my hard work, all my comedy and. And authenticity packed into one. So stick with me. So when you're backed into a corner with no time to think or breathe and you have no crystal ball telling you when the end of this Covid thing is going to happen or this global pandemic, you can feel like there's literally no light at the end of the tunnel, you kind of have one of two options. You can be like the zebras from Lion Guard. Yes, I'm throwing in yet another kid's show or movie reference. So again, if you're not a parent, you're just going to have to go Google or YouTube Lionguard. But the zebras and every episode, when they're in Any kind of trouble. They all say, panic and run, panic and run, panic and run. So that's option one. You can panic and run to the store and buy all of the Pop Tarts and bread that you can find. Or the more difficult thing is to get quiet, to turn inward and realize your old life has died. And part of that healthy mental process is mourning and the realization that that has occurred. You're not going to be able to go back to the way things were. And this idea of a new normal is also like trying to hold fluid in your hand. It's gonna slip through your fingers. So all we really have is today. And I'm gonna take you to how in each and every day we can get through it with a little bit more sanity, a little less anxiety, and a lot more success. So remember that normal is a setting on a washing machine. There is just now, today. And we really have no idea what tomorrow will bring. The second thing is that despite all the social media posts about schedules and the perfect solution to balancing work and life, balance is bs. Your balance is going to look different than my balance. And I don't even know if that's achievable or what we should be looking for in balance. When I think about balance, I think about a teeter totter. And in order to have balance on a teeter totter, you kind of both have to be like hovering midair magically. There's really never balance. One person's up and one person's down. And what's kind of important about that is that you need somebody else's support in order to be up. So you can't do it all. And let's just accept that you also can't do it alone. And at the end of the day, that keeping the kids alive for another 24 hours might be just the success to celebrate. That's it. Just celebrate the fact that you have kept the kids entertained, maybe and alive for another 24 hours, and that you've given them food to eat and filled their hearts with love. And that means that they're actually going to grow up to be functional human beings. How do I know this? Well, because I was a therapist in social services for many years, and the kids that had nothing but they were fully loved and their parents filled their love tanks were successful in almost every other area of life, in social and academic. They wanted to get more out of life. But the kids that were held to a standard to do or be something in order to earn the love of their parents, of their teachers, of Whomever it was, they didn't thrive as much because when they didn't feel successful, they didn't have the motivation or the energy to put into the activities that they apparently should have been doing in order to be loved. And so with that pressure to be or to do something in order to be loved versus to just know that you're going to be safe and have your mom, your dad, or whomever it is, fill your love tank, that's security enough for your kiddos to wake up and really have the motivation and a different perspective and hang with me here because I know that that's a lot to grasp, but I've seen this in action in social services with the kiddos that I've worked with. The irony here is that in order to fill your kids love tanks, you have to start with yours. So the second part that I want you to focus on and because like right now, if you're like, well, bunny, I don't, I don't have any time for that. I want you to think about the love tank as like a car, right? I think imagine that you're a car and how far can you go without filling your tank? Now it doesn't matter if you're a Tesla, you still have to recharge. It doesn't matter how many passengers you have. It doesn't matter what kind of amazing over the top equipment and accessories that you have put on to this car. You can only go so far without recharging, restoring, refilling your energy source, your love tank. And so remember that. I promise I'm going to give you that gift that I created on that morning of the clarity at the end of this video. And so you're just like a minute away from that. And I don't want to overwhelm you. So the last thing I really want to give you on this video before I give you all the rest of the exercises and the tools is I want you to imagine a Venn diagram. And so we know what a Venn diagram looks like. It's one, one circle here and one circle here and then this magical little ellipse in the middle and so on one circle, I want you to think about the things. Label that circle things that I can control and then label this other circle things that impact me. And now if we just turn our attention to that tiny little ellipse, I think that's what that shape's called, that little eye shape right in the middle. Our focus and our intention on where things that you can control and things that impact you and focusing our intention and our energy into what matters most and where we can make the most impact, rather than areas that you can either make headway in, but it's not really going to make a difference for you and your family or in the areas where anxiety reigns supreme but you can't actually control the outcomes. Like if the COVID numbers go up, you can control, only control your choices and your actions related to that for your family. The good news is that once that I did this, I'm not just telling you about this magical awareness that I want to share with you. I am telling you about tools that I have used in order to bring sanity back into my daily life. With having the kids at home. And once I had this shift for myself and once I started discussing these things with my family as a whole, my children's behavior changed as well. In fact, even before I discussed with them all of these things, just me being less stressed and me being able to have that self awareness and me being able to have that perspective, my kids changed. It's like we're no longer one big familial ball of stress. I did teach them the same steps that I'm sharing with you and that I'm going to give you in the outline for you to set up for success for yourself and also for your family. But it changes our perspective and our priorities. I really can say that those are the two things that change the most is our perspective and our priorities each day. So each day how I measure success is at the end of the day I ask my kids for three awesome things and one not so awesome thing for the day. And when they come up with those things, that's a success. That's it. And it's really incredible because when I started to evaluate my day on whether or not it was a success based on that simple little thing, just on the three awesome things and one not so awesome thing. I got so much more done than when I had a to do list that was 10 miles long and I was like, I have to get through all of this in order to have my day be a success. It's just it was transformational. So you've waited long enough and I want to make sure that you have everything that you need to get started on this journey to sanity. So I'm going to give you one, not one, but two things. The first thing is this now famous ebook because of this video that came from that morning of clarity. You see videos of me in this ebook. It's a special kind of ebook that has video content, it has simple exercises. But you'll see in the videos me actually using these exercises in my own home. And so authentically going through this with you and putting them into action, as well as simple, tiny little fill in the blank exercises that are so simple but so impactful that you can do for yourself. And because I want to make sure that your love tank's full, I've included some motivational words so that you can fill your tank as you go. And if that's not enough, if you need more, the second thing that I want to do for you is that if you need more gas in your tank, send me a voice message on Instagram. NYhas6legs, that's me on Instagram. So send me a voice message, let me know how you're feeling. If you're having a good day, if you just want to talk, I'm happy to be there. I'm happy to support, I'm happy to provide you with the simple awareness that you're not alone. Obviously, I'm a parent. I'm a mom of these two amazing, brilliant kids that are asleep in the room next to me. And I'm going through this with you. That's their dinosaur, that's their mobile hanging here. And you know, I'm not at my office. I'm not recording this during a 9 to 5 period. I'm here with you because I want you to know that you're not alone and that these exercises truly transformed not just the sanity of myself, but also for my kiddos. I'll be right here with you if you have any questions about the exercises, if you just need a little bit of inspiration. And you can also tag me in your posts as you complete your exercises. Or if you want to share your three awesome things and one not so awesome thing, tag me. Unnie has six legs on Instagram. I'd love it if you shared it with me. And to grab your ebook, just comment below right here. You can direct message me on Instagram or you can just pop over to Bunnyunnyoung.com and the ebook is the very first thing that you're going to see because I don't to make this complicated. After all, the whole point of this video was how to leave you with more sanity and not more overwhelm, more anxiety. So I want to make it super easy for you to get started like right now, like right after this video, pop over to bunnyyoung.com and download the ebook. Alright? I think that that's simple enough that you can get started right after this video is done. And as always, thank you for making a difference. Thank you for making the world a better place. I'm going to see you soon. Stay safe and stay sane, Starfish.