2020 would always be remembered as the year of the Covid and WFH. Knowing friends who lost their jobs, unable to reunite with families due to travel restrictions, had relatives who passed away due to the virus, we consider ourselves sailing through 2020, However with my industry being severely impacted, my end royally screwed with both hospitality and aviation hitting the longkang, for the first time in my career, I fear for my job.
Work from home at the dining room table was disruptive. Everyone passed by and everyone wanted something. People called and the first sentence was" oh? you are not working today ah?". Kids went "mummy where is the remote control?". "Lift up your legs", Ken would mop the floor when I most need to concentrate (but hey... kudos for mopping the floor !! I love you.)
To cope with being cooped up at home, Ken bought a new toy. I don't know how to operate it since the whole point of drinking coffee is to get out. And anything with movable parts register a broken history in my hands. Ken went YES YES YES stay away from my Nespresso.... Snacks from “values that last” apparently are great stress relievers too.
Mental health should be given better attention this year.
I saw a gentleman in the park suddenly moth into a raging manic stalking and verbally abusing an elderly man who refused to wear a mask. I heard upstairs neighbor screaming death threats at some random barking dog and the tirade of "i will murder you and your whole family" went on for 30 mins with a background music of smashing objects.
Depression and sucide amongst people I know not that uncommon this year. I myself fumed uncontrollably every time that Ferrari engine revved downstairs and I wish everything ill happen to that asshole so I do not need to suffer that pretentious noise again.
Friends told me a survey conducted in school showed that many students felt life meaningless and wanted to die. Even Megi came to me often with " I am bored/ sad/ angry and I don't know why".... well so did I when I was in Primary and Secondary school!!! Welcome to being alive!
There is nothing wrong being bored, sad, angry. There is nothing wrong to want to aim a rotten egg at the Ferrari since it is well within my aim. (I was stopped by Ken who told me I can't afford to pay for the damages)... It is what we do about it. (ok money more important)
The biggest beneficiaries of WFH are M&M. I had never spent so much time with the kids as I considered myself simply not good with young children. 2020 undo my perception of myself as Morgi grew sickeningly attached to me.
"Mummy mummy, I want mummy" a thousand times a day and I did not roll my eyeballs and give him the death stare! I impress myself with my patience.... I leveled up!
Even spouses could get jealous because Kenneth was supposed to be the kid's person (legend has it). Now he upped his game in Nov by introducing LEGO Technic and all kinds of Star Wars and Super Mario set that can be remote controlled by the tablet. Looks terribly fun but stand aside YY, there are movable parts...
Fine I stick to what I do best - ART. OMG son's drawings improving by leaps... My genes are amazing!!!
Even Megan who has never shown any interest in art surprised me with a fantastic canvas at Splatter. LX said her work looks restrained and sophisticated while mine is just vuIgar splashes of color.
Towards the end of 2020, Morgi transferred to a new school at the advise of his psychologist. The new school had been nothing short of awesome and the amount of celebrations they organized were simply unbelievable. This is a school that knows how to have fun.
Is this the right school? Is this a better school? Did we make the correct choice? I think these are the wrong questions. At different stages, he needed different things and we needed different support. We would be totally clueless without EIC at that time when he couldn't eat or look at people when he talked. We would not know he adapt to friends and bigger groups so well without Kids N Kins. And maybe because there were so many interesting daily interactions with friends that he started telling us about his day.
2021, Morgi will move to a new school again (4th school). Gifted or not gifted, the amount of work to get him pass this first stage is the same. So excited for his new school... Anyway it is his journey and he is leading the way. We are all mere supporting cast cheering him along.
Somewhere in the middle of the year, mimi gave me a fair reminder - Megan felt too matured for her age, too considerate for others and sensitive to others' emotions. I need to remember that she sees and feels my focus on Morgan plus my frustrations with many many things and this 9 years old has been sharing my burden to become part of my attention too. Hmm... Mimi is right.
Ah my little gal.... I must remember to let her know I love her so much!
It turned out that I did not need to wait till 2022 to sit back and enjoy M&M cooking for me. These kids are fast at picking up kitchen skills but this sushi lunch took them one and a half hours to get ready and I was starving. M&M did great and MMM cooking/ baking had to be one of the highlights of 2020.
At the close of the year, I did my favorite activity - throwing things away to make space. It was time to let these old dirty A-Z felt/ cloth books I made for Megan more than 10years ago go. I let Morgi write on them one last time and said my goodbyes.
2020 was such a unique year. We were handed free time. We were forced to face ourselves and people we live with. Without these conditions, we would not be able to see the changing needs of Morgan. We saw. We acted on it. We should be proud of ourselves since most people will just continue lamenting and change nothing because to act upon something is scary and tiring. But looking back, all I could remember were fun and laughter, trials and errors.
And look where we are today.
Cheers 2020. And bye bye.
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