VIA MS. CAREER GIRL: HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS MADE US EVOLVE TO WANT MORE THAN CAREER SUCCESS
Covid-19 was the ultimate confirmation of the irreplaceable need to have someone in one’s life who puts their arms around you and says, “You have me.” Schools and daycare centers shut, people lost jobs or started to work from home, public events were canceled—and parents and children suddenly found themselves living in a world where family connection and love were once again realized as the normal way of doing things and not something for which we had to carve out time from our overscheduled days.
We weren’t going out to eat. We weren’t going to work. Family mealtimes were reinstated or perhaps discovered for the first time. After-school sports, camps, and activities went away. Instead, families biked together and took walks in the evenings. For many parents it was the first time in years of “balancing” work life and home life where—unequivocally—home life won out, if only by grudging default.