4 things my son learned during the COVID-19 pandemic
My son is only 19 months and he will not remember the pandemic that stopped the world in its tracks and turned our lives, including his, upside down, but he has definitely learned some coronavirus-related things and included some new games in his repertoire.
– Playing with thermometers
One of his favourite games now is checking the temperature of all the family members several times in a row. If using the ear thermometer, both ears have to be checked! Since the coronavirus pandemic started here in China, our temperature is checked every time we enter a mall or restaurant and every time we come back to our residential compound.
We also have an old school glass thermometer with mercury inside, but he doesn’t know. Better this way…
– Washing hands
Another new game we’ve been playing recently is washing the hands of all his plushy friends. He makes the gesture of opening an invisible tap and pretends a plastic block is the soap. At first he wanted to wash the toys’ hands with real water and soap but I managed to convince him not to. He also likes washing his own hands and before having dinner he always chants “ta ta say” (“wash hands” in Suzhou dialect) while happily trotting to the bathroom.
Ok everybody, form a line and wait for your turn…
– Willing to wear his face mask
Something that my friends back in Spain found surprising was that my son actually wears a mask when we go outside. He has always been willing to wear it, since the whole thing started back in January. Maybe because he sees that we all wear it too? This will come in handy in the future when he needs to wear a mask for the pollution…
– Reminding us to disinfect
And what does he do when we get back home? Reminding us that we have to disinfect the door handles and shoe soles! I think this is totally unnecessary by now but he saw my husband doing it since the beginning of the epidemic and he’s now unforgiving about it. Spray those shoe soles, dad!
He’s gonna grow up to be the most hygienic boy ever haha!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Let’s see if he doesn’t forget his newly acquired habits when this passes, hahaha.
We joke that Americans are going to come out of this with an obsessive need to always have a closet full of toilet paper, Clorox wipes, masks, and hand sanitizer. Sort of like how our grandparents and great-grandparents came out of the 1930s depression with an inability to throw anything away.
Oh, my grandma also saved everything “just in case”! I think in her case she learned it during the Spanish civil war and the post war.
Maybe this will be the end of Marie Kondo, hahaha.
I know so many people now cursing Marie Kondo now…
What!? He’s already 19 months old? He’s awfully cute in his mask.
In fact, he’s turning 20 months at the end of April!!
He looks very cute!
Thanks! The other day we went to a park and a guy asked if his curls were natural, hahaha.
My partner lived in post WWII Germany. He contracted meningitis and later, tuberculosis. He nearly died.
As a little boy he never liked jumping mud puddles or getting very dirty like a lot of children. I think it was partially early child exposure to disease and influence of mother to be always clean.
He is neat, clean guy.
Now it is said that getting dirty is good for the immune system! But must wash hands later, hahaha.
I’m all in for neat and clean guys though!!
What a cutie pie with his curls!
At least he’s going to have great hygiene skills of washing hands. You won’t believe how many people before the pandemic didn’t wash hands. Girls included. But then again, maybe you do believe how many!
Well I have to confess I’d never washed hands so much as these past months. It’s not that I never washed my hands before, but I definitely didn’t wash them 50 times per day xD
Inside your own home it’s not need that much. But outside! Now Spain has time slotted freedom I reaching for the anti bac gel a lot out!
Time flies Marta; such a dear little boy. But how the world has changed since he was born!
Here things feel pretty much the same in our daily life… except that we wear masks outside all the time!
AWWW So cute!!! What a good little boy! I need someone to remind me to disinfect everything when I come home, haha…
He looks so cute with the mask on :)
Cutie – which I’m sure you hear 20 times everyday. Funny how it all seems completely normal to them. My sweetie is a little older so she loves to run up to the security guard to get her temperature checked and announces ‘I’m OK!’ It makes me laugh every time.