As I sit on the sofa with Zac asleep on my chest I am filled with a lot of worry like many people right now. My thoughts of course are with those who are fighting this horrible Coronavirus and those who’ve lost love ones. Boris Johnson’s stark warning that we will lose loved ones this week was not great leadership, in Ireland the headline was together we will save lives.
Since becoming a Mum to Zac naturally I worry more, like every parent I just want him to be ok. In the pharmacy this week someone peered over his pram and informed me his rain cover was bad for his eyes. Obviously it had been raining, but I also informed her it helped to stop people breathing over him like she was! She told me it’s fine under 10s don’t get it, it being Coronavirus. Yet she was in the age bracket we are told is most affected, seemingly unaware he could pass it to her. It was a weird moment, an unsolicited opinion in what are nervous times.
Right now I should be driving to Reading V Stoke returning to Soccer Saturday, like every Mum going back to work I had mentally prepared. Like so many freelancers and contractors I won’t be paid for games that I don’t cover and aren’t on. It is concerning as football is my livelihood and no one could have thought of this. There is no way the season should be null and void right now, health before wealth every time but there are options to finish the season which will be discussed in the coming weeks.
There’s an undeniable edgy atmosphere, I went shopping on Thursday and all I could hear was people talking about Coronavirus. A couple of older people said it will be over soon enough, I hope they’re right.
I’ve never been an overly anxious person but I’ve found myself having to switch off the news and try and not check social media as much. I’ve started checking Zac’s temperature a lot, his cheeks are often bright red as he’s feeding and constantly growing. In our Mum group we’ve agreed if we meet at all it will be only for walks outside.
My mother in law is in her 70s with several underlying health conditions. She’s been unwell so we’ve not seen her for a few weeks and now we’ve made the call to stay away. She doesn’t have the internet but we put her on the phone to Zac so she can hear him at least. We haven’t met my best friends baby as we feel we need to be careful. I didn’t go to 5 aside this week as I was concerned about the spitting and close contact, the day after we had a message saying it’s been cancelled for the foreseeable. This is not a time for complacency, not a time for sport. The latter is such a weird one because we use sport to unify in hard times. Thousands of livelihoods are affected, millions of people are worried so it’s a time to be kind to one another. We have to be so grateful to our NHS, those who are going to deal with the biggest health crisis of our generation.
I have liked the sense of humour shown in the face of adversity, as time goes on and this probably gets much harder I hope we can keep that. We need it now more than ever.
So please don’t be critical to people for overreacting, that doesn’t mean stockpiling loo roll. By the way what is that about? Worse case scenario you could just have a wash?! Please let’s look after each other. I worry in the months and years to come we will reflect and think perhaps initially we under reacted.