Family & Social Child Developement

As this whirlwind of a year comes to a close, it seems only right, we take a look at what the year has been. Unlike years of the past, when we ticked most things off our to-do list, this year caught us off guard, crashed in on our plans and left us dangling in unprecedented situations. And although it isn’t a game of who had it the hardest, as parents we faced so many unique challenges this year in the midst of a pandemic. While it’s easy to think this was a year lost, laced with underachievement, the truth is 2020 in retrospect was a year of triumphs and unparalleled victories.

Here are the parenting wins of 2020.

We Made It Through:

Schools shut, online classes, no house help, social isolation, vacations cancelled, stranded in unfamiliar territories, whatever challenge this year brought our way, we made it through. Working from home, interrupted conference calls, crying babies in the midst of team calls, and juggling homeschooling, online learning, we did it all. We cared for our families, our children, keeping them sane, keeping them safe, helping them sail through these tough times and adapt to these new situations. We made it through  

Time, the greatest gift of all:

A lockdown that spread over weeks taught us how little we actually needed and how everything we deemed “necessary” wasn’t in reality. All that online shopping, new toys that landed at a click of a button were now just out of reach, new clothes suddenly seemed redundant and yet as a family, we enjoyed the greatest gift of all     “TIME”. We found time to truly be with our children, far from the hustle and bustle of our modern lives. Many years from now, when our children look back on this year, little will they remember the celebrations they missed or the trips they couldn’t make, but what they’ll truly remember is the unique time we spent together as a family as the world braved a pandemic.

Resilience:

At the beginning of this year, we didn’t know what the year held in store for us. We were also unaware of the resilience that we harboured deep within us, especially as parents. As the saying goes “ when the going gets rough, the tough get going”. This has been every parent’s victory this year, that we discovered the strength we didn’t know we had within us. We kept our kids safe, we kept them engaged, we learnt to adapt to every single challenge the year threw us. Managing work, home, kids in an atmosphere that seemed so alien, we still managed to make our children feel at home and at ease.  

2021, here we come:

Now that we made it through 2020, I can’t imagine being any more prepared than we are for the new year that awaits us. We’ve made it through the most challenging year, most of us have ever known. We’ve made it to the end of this year, stronger and wiser and more ready than ever.  2021, is going to be our year.

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