Working in a new environment

I don't know if it worked. I don't know if it worked. We'll see, but we're recording anyway.

Okay.

So everybody, thank you for coming. We're really glad that you're here. Today's topic is all about how life has changed and how maybe you're working from home and maybe it's not what you expected. Maybe you didn't work from home before and now you are. You got kiddos in the room showing up, which Dan so nicely brought his. So you got a lot of really cool people here today. I'm just going to go around and try to, try to have everybody have a chance to introduce yourself. And if you could just maybe say your name, a little bit about your business and where you're located, and then something that you're grateful for. And then we'll kind of hit up— and I got Madeline here too. I'm going to try to talk her into showing a picture because we're—

No.

I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start with Sarah and then work my way over.

Oh, okay.

Um, so, uh, so sorry, I missed a little bit. So Sarah Prevost, Vintage Labs. I'm in Portland, Oregon. So we've been kind of in the lockdown for a little bit. For quite some time. What am I grateful for? Actually, I'm grateful because I get to see My family more. It sounds weird, but I see them more often, being that we're we're making more family time events together. So yeah, it's less about shuffling and driving to soccer and da da da da da.

Okay, Dan the Man, you're up.

My name is Dan Luthy. I'm with Ignite Spot Outsourced Accounting. We're located in well primarily located in Utah, but we have employees all the United States. I am here with 2 of my sons. One of them just stepped out for a minute. I got 4 total kids. I have not— was not ready to work from home. I'll say that. I've got definitely my fair share of what my experiences were like before, but we've been home for just over 3 weeks right now and figuring it out and working through it day by day. But it's been super fun. They're usually not this well behaved on Zoom, so I'm hoping This holds out. Oh, it's for work. It's not family. So they'll be calm and they'll be respectful, it sounds like.

So how was the earthquake out there?

Earthquake was pretty interesting, wasn't it? Woke all of you guys up.

No, it only woke up me and Mom.

So it was Hudson's birthday that week when that happened. So it was right when we were homebound. So He lost the ability to go out and do something fun. We try to take all of our kids out to dinner, to their own specific spot, just as a family, and then we do an activity together, and he didn't get to do any of that. Plus, like, we usually buy their birthday gifts on Amazon, and most of them were delayed. So he, he had kind of a pretty crappy birthday week, but hopefully it shook out pretty well.

What are you grateful for, Dan?

I'm grateful for these guys, to be honest with you. It was a hard first week. I'll be honest that I was not grateful for them the first week, but, uh, it's, uh, it's definitely changed for the last couple weeks. It's been really fun to spend time with them and do things differently and change my, my work mentality.

Yeah, awesome.

Okay, Madeline, you're up.

So I'm Madeline Pratt. I'm the CEO of Fearless in Training. I am on day— I've lost count, but I voluntarily quarantined after my husband got back from Europe, and then he did test positive. We're all fine and healthy. But the state department, or the Washington State Health Department, was kind enough to extend my quarantine period by an extra 14 days. So I've still got to like not leave my house. And I'm going on like a month of like not leaving my actual neighborhood. So it's just, it's a weird way to be. I worked from home before, but new challenges of having both kids here full time. The 8-year-old, super productive. We've got him on a schedule. The 2-year-old is a Tasmanian devil who needs to be watched at all times. Luckily, they're both being watched right now. But I am really grateful for— I think this situation made me realize how many people made my work and my life possible, whether it was, you know, the people who cared for my kids or the teachers or, you know, even now we're getting like some food delivered or we're getting, you know, packages delivered and I I'm just so grateful for all the people who still make it possible for me to at least be running my business, even though it's, it's, you know, from home and slightly different construct. I'm really grateful for all the humans that make that possible. So yeah, my mom, I'm grateful she's watching them right now. So I'm grateful for that too.

It's cool that you're just doing the yoga online. I have not done that with my studio. They've asked me to, but the studio owner that I'm working— that I teach at, she's actually Paying the student— the teachers to do it. So there's some that just do yoga teaching. So I kind of stepped back from it, but it's pretty cool. How's that been?

It's been amazing. Like, when— my biggest thing is, you know, I teach because it helps me continue to practice. Hi there, Katie. But it, you know, normally my studio I teach at, a big packed class is 15 people, and now I'm doing virtual yoga with 45 people. Every Tuesday and Thursday, and the list keeps getting bigger and bigger. And so, I mean, my goal is always to just get, you know, the practices in the hands of people who need it. And so the fact that I can reach that many more people by teaching online is pretty fun. And I've gotten some nice feedback from folks that it's been helpful. So that makes it feel good.

Awesome.

You know, I wanted to tell you, I have a lot of respect for how you, with everything that's happened with your family, how open you were about it and through social media and everything else. I think it takes a lot of courage, but you've You've always been that way from what I've seen, but I just want to say I had a lot of respect for what you did there. It was great.

I appreciate that. It's a hard situation, but like, as soon as I realized that my husband had been walking around for a week completely asymptomatic, I just felt like everybody needed to realize that's, that, you know, that's what could be going on. Because I think that there was so— there's still so much we don't know about the virus. And so I just felt like obligated to be like, this is how serious it is. It is, guys. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Matthew.

Mariette, you're up. Hi guys, sorry. I'm, yeah, like the new life. So, well, actually, it's kind of funny. My name is Mariette. I have 3 kids, a 14-year-old daughter who's in junior high going into high school, figuring it out right now because she's all bummed.

She's like, oh my God, I'm not going to high school.

I'm like, yes, you are. Still going to high school, relax. My 11-year-old 7th grader who is home with me, and he's a boy, so all he wants to do all day is play outside and not do any social distancing. So we're figuring that out. And then my 3-and-a-half-year-old little one that is like literally in the clouds because he has his mom, his dad, and his siblings home with him.

So Yeah.

How am I doing and how am I— what am I grateful for? Gosh, living, breathing, my kids being healthy, you know, up to this point. And my mother-in-law until 2 weeks ago, you know, being able to help me, but she's in her late 60s. And so she asked to stop coming because of social distancing and out of complete respect. I said, absolutely. And so I'm grateful actually that she was confident enough to ask me for that because I would have, you know, been so sad for her to be here uncomfortable. Um, and as you know, Madeline was mentioning, you know, kind of grateful now to have open eyes and realize how much we have and like how to make things work. Because if we did it with everything we had before, we can still make it work with what's going on now. We just have to maybe shift a little bit here and there, but we are absolutely more fortunate than most. And so just really grateful for that. I think those were your questions.

Yes. And I'm grateful for that video that made me smile on Sunday when James Oliver— I could tell you were like trying to find a section of the living room to just do a really quick Facebook Live. As soon as you started, he came in with his blanket and I'm like, oh, I can't hide from my kids, by the way.

Yeah, it's not possible.

You're next.

Hey everybody, Scott Citron. I'm in Dallas. I have a full-time PR practice that I've had for— I think this November will be 25 years. And I also run several of Intuit's blogs and newsletters and so on for them. I had a home office more than 20 years ago and then moved to a— not a home office, For a really long time. So this is kind of like being obviously back at home. That's, you know, that's obvious. But being back where I started, the only drag for me is, as you all know, I work with my son full time. He's been with me a little over 6 years, and I don't get to see him every day, but we're doing Zoom. And we're doing Slack. And so, and I'm the one who buys him groceries and takes them over. Drops them off outside his door. So that's the only downside right now of us— work, my work life. Grateful for just all of my friends and health, my good health.

Yeah.

And my family's health. My father turns 95 this Sunday. Oh, wow!

Oh, happy birthday!

Yeah.

And so it's killing me that I can't actually hug him. If it were up to him, yeah, he would let me in the house, but I don't think that would probably be too wise right now. So I'm gonna make a cake, drop it by, say hello to him from the garage, and he'll— I told him we'll celebrate later on once things open up again and, you know, all that stuff. So that's— it's a little hard because of that, but otherwise Life is very good.

I'm figuring by the end of this year there's going to be like a bazillion parties because everything's just kind of deferred.

It is the hardest part to be able to be the parent to the parent on this part. I've had to do the same. You are not coming over, you're staying away.

I feel bad for people who just like had a newborn and the grandparents can't hold the baby and it's like, yeah, heartbreak.

We took him.

Please try to stay positive and think about what's been, you know, what are you grateful for to start here, because there's so many things to be grateful for right now, and I'm grateful that you guys all showed up.

You're next.

I am Vaidhavi, and I think you have heard enough of me from a couple people over here. And I'm grateful to be here right now and have friends like you. Grateful about my family. Here in New York, all other states, most probably my family back in India, and everyone is safe. Everyone so far has been following the rules religiously, and which is making, you know, keeping them safe. My girls— I have twin girls, 11-year-old, handful, fight all day long because they got nothing to do other than their virtual school that just started. I've always— not always, but last 6 years I've worked from home, but this is different. This is definitely different with having those girls around, husband for 3 weeks straight. That's difficult. We're gonna make it. But as all of you said, we're really, really fortunate that how the world is still going. There is hope, there is faith, and, you know, we continue to help each other, whether it's community, whether it's our accounting community, or just overall. So I think there's hope, and we'll all just stick together and get through this, right?

Good thing you just built that office, huh?

That's me quarantined here.

Where are they? I hope they show up.

Well, that's Netflix, right? So I don't know. I'm just getting Disney Plus. So then there's no chance of me seeing them.

Okay, Matthew, you're up.

Oh, I should be last. Everybody knows who I am. Hi, I'm Matthew. You guys know me. I am most grateful for— actually, the thing I'm most grateful for today, this moment, is all of these new unique faces that are showing up here. I think it's great. I really appreciate it. We hope to see each and every one of you back more and more, more often, of course. So that's awesome. And then on a personal one, I've really enjoyed actually, 'cause I live alone in Ventura, seeing all the different neighbors that are walking their dogs and getting the chance to socially distantly talk to them across the street. But yeah, it's been just nice to actually have another reason to get to know my neighbors.

And you know, Dan actually picked us over being with the other guys.

So hey, I noticed that.

We should go with Sarah next, right? Sarah?

Actually, no, ebookkeeping actually popped in on my screen before. And I don't know your name, but I hope you can tell us and tell us a little bit about you. Maybe she can't hear us. Oh, she's just—

she's gonna jump back on. But her name is Analia Martinez.

Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I think she froze though, so maybe go to Sarah and then come back to her.

Yeah.

Okay, let me—

yeah, go for it.

Sarah Elliott. Yeah. Oh wait, can you hear me?

Yeah, I can hear you, but I think you froze a little bit too.

There you go.

Yeah, I was like, why can't I hear you? Okay, perfect. So hello, Sarah Elliott, founder of the Elevate Alliance, which so many of you lovely women here are part of. Also co-founder of Intended Lead. Gosh, so I have a 5-year-old boy and a high-anxiety dog who is hovering next to me right now on the floor. If you could see, that's Molly. And my son was in here earlier. I don't know if anyone caught him, but he was in his underwear jumping around on the bed. And then, you know, he realized he was on a video call and he said, I need to go get dressed. That was funny.

That's true.

It's probably on the recording. But yeah, so Austin, Texas.

This is week 4, I think.

I don't even know. It all runs together. And it's been a challenge, a challenge running 2 businesses. My husband works at a hospital and he has to go in every day. So we've just been doing our best to split shifts. We meticulously plan our calendar. We have, I get maybe 3 hours a day and the weekends to focus and the rest, it's full-time mom duty. So we're just doing our best to give each other grace and to be patient and to some days not kill each other. It's honestly how it is. But I'm grateful that I'm grateful that we're all healthy and well and that, um, just that we have the flexibility, you know, to make this work. I mean, yeah, it's not easy for anybody, but gosh, we're, we can do it, you know, and we're fine and we're here together and it reminds us of what's important.

I heard your event was absolutely amazing in Texas. A lot of positive, positive feedback from people I know. So that was pretty cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, we have an amazing group of people, amazing women.

Analia, you're next. Hopefully you can unmute. We see, we see your kiddos. Okay, go ahead, you can talk.

Yes.

I'm glad you came.

Yes.

Can you say hi? Come say hi.

Now they get camera shy.

Well, he is 3 years old going on 4, and it depends who I have. Sometimes I name him Rafael, but he decided to name himself Dwayne. So when something bad is going on, I need to ask who did it, and usually it's Dwayne, the one that makes big mess. The biggest thing I've been fighting right now is Haircut. I find him like climbing on my desk chair many times, and he has scissors. So far, he hasn't used any real scissors, like his toy scissors.

Oh my goodness.

So I need to be really careful.

Oh my God, I love that story.

You should probably hide those scissors better.

If you guys see me sometimes with a weird haircut, you know what happened. So scissors are being very careful in my house right now.

So you're grateful for— I'm grateful for—

well, of course for him. He makes life really challenging. But honestly, I'm really careful for— Okay, Papa. I'm really grateful for the QBO Live community and everybody with QuickBooks that does all these groups because, you know, it's like I'm still trying to put all the pieces together in my business. And my friend kind of pushed me to do it.

Mama, see.

But when you start a business, you think it's so easy, you know, it's like you just think it's black and white. then all the shades of gray and purple and blue start showing up. And I'm learning so much from everybody, like just going at 2 AM, 3 AM into Facebook or YouTube and learning so much as to what to do.

So yeah, that's something I'm really thankful for. So I think next, if anybody wants to share a story about what they thought it was going to be like working from home and then what it actually is. Or a funny story, if anybody has a funny story that they can share, that they dare to share. I know we shared a few before we started to come on the live, but anybody want to go first?

Yeah, so I, my whole experience, I've always struggled with working from home, to be honest with you. Like, when I was here before, I had always this like mentality of doing other things while I was here. It was Do laundry and dishes and all that kind of stuff, just kind of help around, and that always kind of sidetracked me from doing what I need to do. And so it's— I think it's helped a lot with how crazy that it's been over the last like 3 weeks with work and things like that that has been really busy. So I've had to put a lot more control on what I do with my schedule to be able to make sure that I can be present with the rest of the people when I'm, you know, in my house when I need to be, but also I can also focus, hyperfocus on what I need to do when I'm working from that standpoint. For the first couple of days that I was working, I was working out of this, this room in my house. This used to be my kids' toy room. And it had these like mint green painted walls. It looked like I was in a pediatrics dentist's office, and I got a lot of comments about it. And so after the first weekend, my 11-year-old son and I Painted all the walls and had fun doing that together. We set up an office and it was kind of just fun to be able to do that with him. And then I stole this picture from our office so that it actually looks like a real office for me from that standpoint. But funny story though is my, my kids know that they're not supposed to like connect with kids when they're playing outside in the front yard, and they do pretty good from that standpoint. But there's always these little, 2 little kids that ride around their bikes around the neighborhood. And my sweet little 3-year-old daughter was on the curb and the kids drove by and she just yelled coronavirus like 6 times and booked it up the driveway. And was yelling like, you know, we can't hang out with friends because we're afraid we're going to get sick. And she was like hiding behind my wife. So like, It was like a proud moment of like, it's sinking in that you need to pay attention. But also at the same point in time too, it was really sad because like In her little heart of hearts, like, she was, she was just trying to make sure her brothers and sisters were okay. So it was, but it was, it was funny. We had a good time after that.

We have—

oh, I was gonna say, we have a kid down the block who basically just like stands guard in his, in his front yard, and if people get too close, he yells, keep your distance! And he's like 4.

That's awesome.

Well, I came with my son, was like, because they've been going on a walk every day, and he's like, this The kid won't, like, even people are on the other side of the street and he's just yelling, keep your distance! Little 4-year-old posting out front.

It's great.

That kid's got like the heart that I want when I'm like 70. I don't want people on my porch. I want them just staying completely away from me. That's awesome. I need to know this kid.

Wait, Matt, I want to see that picture. Do you have it?

Oh, of my floor?

Well, you can tell the story if you want.

Oh, so I don't know that this is a great story. story per se. But this is, you know, a visual of my living room after 5 minutes unsupervised. And my not-so-secret thing is that maybe I'm minor, like light-level OCD, like maybe, like just, just on the cusp of like, you know, where people are crazy as opposed to just tidy. And as my husband put it, he's like, you just, every time there's not a place for something, you throw it in the trash.

Mm-hmm.

And so being in our home, with 2 kids who are just tearing the place apart has been really challenging. And so Monday, you know, my husband was finally able to go back to work because he's essential personnel as a firefighter. And, and so it's my first day, you know, really not having him here, being with the kids, trying to figure it all out. And I left the littlest one for 5 minutes, maybe. And this is the state of the living room. And this is not even half of it because underneath this cushion, I found about 50 more stickers. And I spent the next hour like kicking myself because I had literally been like, they're good for 5 minutes. And then I spent the next hour with like a little like razor blade scraping stickers off of our living room floor. So it was, it was very enjoyable.

Yeah.

And then I gave up and we went for a walk. And that was basically the rest of the day. I was like, I can't work when it's just me and them. And that's, you know, that's the adjustment is that on the days where my husband is working, he works a 24-hour shift. And so I've had to just reschedule everything on those days because I'm not able to do anything because these two take full-time attention. So yeah.

Who's the schoolteacher now? Because now you have to be the teacher, right?

How's that going?

Oh, I'm a terrible teacher.

I call it accidental homeschool teacher. And Jackie Meyer yesterday, she's— I don't know if you guys know Jackie Meyer.

She's a hoot.

And she's like an acronym junkie. Just like I'm an emoji junkie, she's an acronym junkie. And like everything has to turn into an acronym, like everything. So I just wrote one thing yesterday about this event. And I'm like, oh my God, who wants to talk about becoming an accidental homeschool teacher? So that's what, AHST, whatever. So then all of a sudden she's like, yeah, are you an AHST? I'm like, what the heck's an AHST? She's like, you just said it. I'm like, I did? She's like, of course, it's an accidental homeschool teacher. And I'm like, oh my God, how did you turn that into an acronym like in a matter of 2 minutes? So yeah, I think that's what we all are now.

We're just trying to figure that out.

Does she work for the government by chance? Because they've got a whole bunch of acronyms all over the place.

Well, she works a lot with Intuit, and Intuits are also acronym junkies. Oh, there we go.

Yeah, there's your answer.

Yeah.

Anybody else have a story?

I think my house has become more fun because I have 2 pranksters.

in my house.

I don't know who they take after.

That's right. I mean, I thought that my idea was I would have an awesome breakfast with my family every day, 3 meals together. It's gonna be perfect. But there are those fake bugs everywhere in my house, placed in specific areas. And here I would take a Something to cook and there would be a, I don't know, beetle inside, and then there would be something in the cup of tea, and every day nonstop. And they're a lot of fun. We have 11-year-old chatty ones on a breakfast table. But it's also sad that they, they have to understand the situation where my parents are home for 3, 4 weeks and we don't know when they're going to go back. They're working, like, just looking at me, I'm pretty much working 14, 15 hours nonstop just to support that everything's going on around. And similarly, my husband. And it's the question, like, this morning my little one is like, Mom, is this going to be an event where I'm going to be talking about this to my kids? And, and she gave a worst example of Holocaust event, and I had to change the conversation that no, it's not that bad. But at the same time, I had to make them understand that this is so real, and this is how the life could be very unpredicted, and we just need to prepare for for how it goes. And the very next minute, I get served an Oreo cookie in my in my plate by my other. And obviously there was full of salt. It was a salty Oreo cookie custom made for me. I'm like, this is fun. This is the best breakfast I've ever had.

Who taught them these tricks?

Well, there's a lot of YouTube going on around.

There's—

and there are—

they have influences. They have all kind of Tricky area.

I know, I think you're about to get a confession here. Hold on.

I'd like to officially change what I'm grateful for and transition it over to your kids because these are great stories.

It's awesome.

It's fun to be around. This is a challenging part, but I think we're learning a lot from our kids too.

I think it's amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Sarah, do you have any— I thought you unmuted for a minute there and I don't want you to miss your chance.

I don't remember. Well, I was saying when we were talking about homeschooling, like the first week I was like, yeah, we can do this. I'm on morning duty. So I set up this schedule and Ethan told me his whole schedule that they do at school. So we wrote it out and I said, we'll check the box every time. Like we have work time and then we have snack and then we have music time, right? And story time and nap and yada yada. And I was so proud of myself. And we would start every day, we— I sang the Star-Spangled Banner because that's what they do in school. And then we'd say the Pledge of Allegiance and we started at 9 and it's so hilarious because this week it's like, I don't even know what's happening. There is no school. We're just like, I have to get out of the house. We're going to take the dog for a walk. I'm trying to do a phone call.

Right?

He's like, I'm like, don't get near those people. You know, don't touch that. And he's like, it's the coronavirus. So it's just like, It's so funny how things have just deteriorated so quickly. So yeah, routine is good. And then I think giving yourselves grace, right? Us giving ourselves grace is so important because I'm not like being my best mom self a lot of the time. I'm just trying to get by. So gotta be okay with that.

Yeah, it's funny, I was saying that to Linda about grace, like everyone needs to have a little bit more grace and patience. But Linda heard my son come in one day and he, right after we got the stay-in-place, said, can I go to Walgreens? And I'm like, no, why would you go there? And then he continues on and I'm thinking, oh my God, this poor child, we're in for a long haul to explain this is not happening. You're not gonna just go and buy yourself a little popcorn or ice cream or whatever you want to buy. Just freedom.

Oh, thank you.

Schoolwork starting on this day.

You're missing the best part of the story because she said, no, you can't. He said, but Dad said I can. And she picked that phone up in 2 seconds. She goes, Sebastian! I was like, oh God.

He was in the living room.

I wasn't gonna get up and go in there.

The next day he came back in. He goes, can I go play with my friends? She's like, what part about social distancing don't you get? You're supposed to be in school.

Go back in.

It's so weird that they have to do school on Zoom. It's so strange.

Yeah, he's on Zoom. Yeah, I had to give up a computer.

Someone posted something on social media the other day, and my husband shared this with me. He said, yeah, my favorite memory of 2020 so far is sending my kids to school. Do you remember that? Wasn't that really cool?

We were dying laughing. Oh yeah, do you remember that?

Oh, so cool when we got to do that.

Ah.

Anybody have a tip? Like, maybe we should all get a tip from Dan to how to get their kids to paint the room. That's a pretty good— I didn't know how you did that, Dan.

Yeah. Madeline can have them clean up after they paint.

Yeah, so I— the one of the things that— my wife had surgery right before everything happened, so like the week before, and so she wasn't able to like do a whole lot of moving and go through things, and so While like our world was blowing up and I was working a ton, I was also trying to just like manage and help with the kids as much as I could. And so that first week was really hard. It was really hard just figuring out a rhythm for them and figuring out a, you know, like consistency for them and setting boundaries and helping my wife through that process. But I'm really lucky to have her here. Like my wife works from home and so she works, she always, she kind of works 10, 15, 20 hours a week. And so it's been, you know, she's able to come in and come out and work through things. But we've kind of just got to the point to where we have to set boundaries with our kids and like, here's time to do these things, focus on school, set the expectation what needs to be done here. But also, they need to have playtime where they can just do whatever they want outside, run around and be crazy. And honestly, they also need their like video game and TV time, like They need that so that you can also be sane too. And I keep seeing all these memes or things that come across of like, you're never going to see a parent right now really criticized for like technology like use through any of this because it's so hard for them to also be in this space too when they're when they're used to being at school interacting with their friends all day long. My sweet little girl, my eight-year-old is. She's our little space cadet is what we call her because she, she's so flighty with her thought process. And her teacher at school manages it so well where she lets her like do her crafts is what she calls it, or she'll just like doodle and do a bunch of random things on her desk. Like she needs to have that ability even at home. And so we make sure she has that time to be able to go through. So we have like cut up paper everywhere all over our house and working through that, but I think that's the biggest thing for us is just making sure that we have time set aside for each of their individual things. And then we also set aside time for our family. Like last night we watched Jurassic Park together, which was really fun. I get to share some of the movies that I watched when I was a kid with my kids. And so that was super cool. Tonight we're watching Goonies. So that'll be fun too. I watch their stupid YouTube videos that they like to watch. They have some people that they're just like obsessed with and go through that. So I make time to watch that with them. But it's definitely not easy. It's, it's really difficult to figure it out. But like, I think Sarah was talking about this where you have to like set aside specific time. Like, I've had to chunk out times in my regular schedule to be present outside of this room. And that's been probably the hardest part for me to get used to is because I'm— I was very systematic. I get at work, I get to work between 6:30 and 7. I'm there until 5 o'clock. I don't really leave my office except to eat lunch. Like, I had a very detailed routine that I'd go through, and I had to throw it out the window completely to be flexible, to understand that, like, they're having just as much a harder time as I am dealing and coping with this. And so, yeah, that's been, that's been a big, big difference for me in going through it. And my kids are such different ages, so it's like— I'll say this, to be completely honest, I've never seen my kids interact with each other so well as I have over the last week. Like, they're actually connecting instead of fighting, and so that's been like— our screaming matches have gotten less. So that's been really helpful over the last little bit too.

That's cool.

Anyone else have any tips to share?

Dan, you give me hope for humanity. Thank you.

I, I've got it. I'll share. You know, we, we got pretty good about the schedule thing early on because my 8-year-old is a planner, and so like The first words out of his mouth every single day is, you know, what's the plan for today? And so we recognized that he needed a plan really early on. So we have a whiteboard in our kitchen, and so it used to, you know, be a place that kids draw on, and now it's got the schedule. And so any moment he's antsy or feeling aimless throughout the day, we're just like, look at the schedule. And we gave up on the idea that we were going to do any sort of all-day school. Pretty early on because school for us has just been getting kind of like packets and suggestions via email from teachers. Supposedly they're gonna do something more structured starting next week, but in the end it sounds like they're just gonna be emailing us packets of work. And so we've got them kind of blocked up until 1:00 PM, and then after that there's creative time. And there's a few rules like in terms of how many hours of screen time. And so we were like doing that really well for like a week or two, and then I think my husband and I both hit a wall wall of just feeling like, how many more weeks are we going to be doing this? And so technically this week is spring break, but what is spring break even anymore? So we got a little bit more flexible. And I saw this thing the other day that just cracked me up where it was a mom who was like, there's nothing wrong with letting your kids be on TV all day. Turn on a nature channel, science lesson done. They ask you to get a drink of water, tell them to get it themselves. PE, done. Like, your child says they don't want to watch any more TV, you tell them, baby, you can do hard things. Personal development lesson done. And I was like, you know, some days are going to be like that, you know, and some days are going to be, you know, today we've started to try and figure out what is something that he could look forward to. And so I don't know how many of you have watched the John Krasinski, The Good News Show. Yeah, like, that's so great. And so they had a little girl on the last episode who didn't get to see Hamilton, and she really was obsessed with Hamilton. And so we'd been looking for a project for Caden, and so he was like, you know, who's— what's Hamilton? And so now he's doing a little report on Hamilton, and he's also getting to watch YouTube videos of the songs. And so it's like we're trying to figure out things that, rather than feel like curriculum, feel like things that were organically interesting to him, and then structure Structure some, you know, okay, now you can read a book on it or you can write a report. And that's seeming to help us all stay a little more sane, just to kind of go with the flow a little bit more.

Well, I think that's one of the things that you have to find that rhythm of what it needs. Like when we first started, we've been doing actual homeschooling for, I think, 3 weeks now. So like 2 weeks, 3 weeks ago, they sent the first round of stuff out. We had, we got iPads from our kids' school and they've been working on things. Like my middle child had a stack, like he had a full 8 hours worth of work to do every single day. And like my other kids had 2 hours maybe most, and that included like 30 to 40 minutes of reading in there. And so my, my son's like crying because he wants to go do what everybody else is doing. And so we actually had to put some, some controls on it and say, I mean, you're 9 for crying out loud. I'm— you're— this isn't like— you're still gonna graduate and move into third, you know, into fourth grade after this. This isn't like a high school thing we're dealing with. So we had to put some boundaries even on that. But since then, man, his teachers have been great on giving the good structure, just like, you know, Madeline said, and giving some framework of what they can do. And I gotta take my hats off to the teachers that actually are like— put thought into that framework to be able to give the right amount of structure for kids who really need it. And Luckily enough, we're really blessed to have schools that, like, a school that has resources for us to be able to piggyback off of too, because hell, I don't got 3 iPads for my kids to be able to work on every single day. And so it's nice to have that resource from the school to work through it.

I totally agree that I, I'm so amazed at my son's openness to be, okay, I've got class at this time, I'm gonna do my homework. That first week was intense. It was the same thing, it was too much. And then they kind of tapered back. But you're right. And I think the hardest part is the older they are, it's when they have all these questions, you can't do your science labs the same way. It's finding a new way to engage. So I'm like, oh, I wonder what he's doing. Like, how are you writing your teachers for the questions? And then I'm like, don't ask me because I'm not doing advanced math.

Was it advanced math or something else? I'm like, ooh, I don't want to do that.

It's like a—

yeah, it's a conversion of like—

I don't like math. I'm just an accountant.

I love math, but I was like, I can't tell you that.

So I think this situation has taught them a lot of skills. I think they're continuously communicating, they're finding ways, they're calling their teachers, they're scheduling meetings. They all have their free Zoom accounts. At some point in time, there's 4 people in the house, everyone is on a Zoom call. But it's, it's this early, they're, they're learning pretty much everything, how to order Organize, plan their day because, hey, mom has meetings. So I mean, every morning in the breakfast, during breakfast time, I tell them that I have these meetings. These are my client calls and these are my office calls and we can do this around this time. In the meantime, they have a schedule like when are we baking cake today because that's on our schedule. So they're technically putting everything on my schedule. I'm getting emails from them from the next room. which is very interesting. And the one best thing I think that has happened to just us as a family is we have a group of 5, 6 friends, and what we have started is a Google Sheet. Everyone is writing their thoughts for the day or anything, just everything that happened for today.

Really?

And adults, kids, we all are part of that. Everyone is writing a journal, and it's just awesome. Because now we're away, and yes, we can do FaceTime and calls, but just reading these journals, kids are learning so much about communication, feelings. So they would read these journals, and next day they would call their friend and say that, oh, I looked at your journal yesterday, what happened to you? Or did you break this toy?

Or—

because, you know, kids, when they start writing, they're very descriptive and it's very interesting. I personally never read something like this before, and this last 10 days looking at these journals give us so much perspective what's going on in their head right now. The best feeling that, oh wow, you know, kids that age can think that way, and it's just an amazing experience. I think we all are going to come out learning something, whether it's kids or us, you know, something out of this. And The best feeling, actually.

I know with my grandson, when I'm up, I always have to read him books before he goes to bed. And before the oldest one goes to bed, the little one doesn't really know, but the oldest one, and before he goes to sleep, he always has to tell you what was good about his day, what was one thing he wished he could change, and what was one thing that he would— he wants to be better for tomorrow. It's such a good thing to do. It's just like yoga, right? You start your day, but before— I always say before you put your feet on the floor, It's the best time to just be grateful for something because it's so easy to let your brain get kind of wrapped up in everything that's going around. And I have to tell you, I have a new respect for all of you with little kids because I never— being out of the kid world, it never occurred to me like all the things you guys are going through. And to know that like you guys are rocking it and, and you're giving yourself the space to like, ah, today's not going to happen. It's not going to be as planned. And yeah, it's just wonderful. Anybody else have anything else they want to say before we close out? More tips? I think you guys gave some great tips.

I was going to share one because, because it dovetails nicely. Like, we had this ritual before, before all of this started, but it seems way more timely now where every night at dinner, before we finish dinner, everybody has to say a good thing, bad thing, and thankful thing. And it's, it's this ritual we do every night to the point where my, my littlest one, he doesn't do the whole things, but, but he'll go, good thing. Um, and then he'll like mumble on because he knows the ritual. And so we all go around and again, like, I think it's really amazing to see the way kids process and handle this situation. And every night my son says, I'm just so thankful that, you know, my mommy can work from home and that my dad, you know, has the job he does and that we've got this good meal. And he'll just say things that blow me away.

Mm-hmm.

Like, he'll, he'll like, you know, we've been getting these these meal kits from Marley Spoon and he'll go, you know, I'm so grateful for the people at Marley Spoon for making sure that we could make this meal. And it's just, I think that what I hope comes out of it is that kids, I mean, I don't remember being 8 and realizing how connected we all are to people around the world. And so to hear him be grateful for people he's never met and things like that, it makes me feel like they're opening up their perspective or their realization of how connected they are to other people. Which I hope serves them really well in the long term.

That's so awesome.

I wanted to add one, just one last thing too. I think there's a lot of truth to what Madeline said, and one of the things that I've realized a lot over the last, especially over the last week, is that my family was kind of disjointed a little bit when I was a kid because my parents were both working full-time, and so we spent a lot of time as kids just interacting with each other and Now with technology the way that it is and video games and things from that standpoint, and even like sports and all that kind of stuff, like families are a lot more stretched farther apart than what they have been historically. And so like, this is such a good framework to just force that internalization so much deeper into each other. And, you know, luckily enough, my kids are really small, so I'm hoping that this is something that we can create as a trend. forever for us to be able to create that consistency and that reliance upon each other so that we're not being dragged out by 10,000 other things. But it's also just amazing to have those moments when your family recognizes the gratitude that they have for each other and processes. I'm just listening to my kids right now and they're laughing and having fun together, not screaming, which is totally the opposite of what it normally is. And so it's exciting to have those moments and to be able to hopefully continue with that.

Thank you, everybody, for joining. And we started with gratitude, and we're going to end with gratitude. So thank you so much for being here, sharing your stories. And I appreciate all of you. And big, big hugs. And we'll get through all this. And just thank you for being part of it. Bye, guys.

Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you.