What's your silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud?

[fazool]

I am not minimizing the horrors of this pandemic, nor trivializing the health issues and costs in lives, nor the financial collapse that is looming over many.

Surviving a bad situation sometimes is easier if we try to find something positive to focus on.

For me, there are a few positives to focus on:

We have three college kids. One lives at home and commutes locally, another dorms out of state and the other lives out of the country in an apartment to attend grad school. All the kids have come home and the whole family is together again. This is really nice.

We have a family game night probably twice a week with anywhere from 4 to 6 people playing games. We make a point to take a one-hour outdoor walk every other day and do a nature walk or sight seeing in things we take for granted around town. We try to do a 5K exercise run 2-3 times a week now.

I'm a huge advocate for flexibility in work and worked out of my home occasionally. My current company was staunchly old school and thought anyone working from home was lazy and stealing from the company. This little global catastrophe has forced them out of the 18th century and to embrace the modernity of the real world - we have almost two hundred employees working from home now.

This has slowed down the rabid consumption-ism that seems to consume us. We don't have to work-spend-buy-shop-run-work-buy-spend..........it's almost like being on vacation.

[Nyghthawk]

I have spent more time writing poetry, landscaping the yard, and playing/listening to music. Also been learning my new (to me) DSLR.

[RedJoker]

This is going to sound negative but it really isn't.

I never liked working from home because I prefer work to be work and home to be home. I like that separation. Since my commute is only 15 minutes, that was perfect for transitioning between the two. I'm really struggling being home all day and yet getting none of my 'home' projects done. It's harder on my wife's days off because I still have to work. So I don't really have any extra time to do the things that others are enjoying.

However, I'm extremely grateful that I have the option. There are so many people that simply don't have that option. Plus, there are far fewer interruptions.

I was telling my wife last night that another silver lining is that the coffee is MUCH better at my home office than at work.

[patchmcg]

Our office is closed indefinitely. I was talking to by boss the other day, and we both agreed, in a very business-like fashion of course, that it's really, REALLY nice to not set an alarm clock every morning.

[Mbroady]

Since day care closed for my (almost) 3 year old daughter, and both my wife and I are home, we get to spend some quality time with the rugrat. As much as I appreciated the staff at the day care the education there can’t compare to the home schooling she now gets. The down side is no social interaction other then online chats.

[6 Strings MI]

Ample time to get VA appointments taken care of, reduced fuel bills/wear and tear on the car, and the possibility of owning a really nice guitar sooner than I would have thought.

[martingitdave]

Silver linings are a good thing to focus on given the circumstances. So, I'll participate.

On a personal basis, I've found that my quarantine is helping me to improve my eating habits and loose weight. I'm less obsessed with perfection. And, I discovered I'm pretty good at managing the business through a crisis, which I wasn't so sure of.

On the family basis, my wife and I are finding more coherence managing the household together. Giving us a sense of common purpose rather than the helter-skelter existence we were living three weeks ago. The kids are doing amazingly well. They say kids are resilient, and I think many of us can attest to that.

Lastly, I'm hopeful that my family and I can find more room for love.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Mbroady

Since day care closed for my (almost) 3 year old daughter, and both my wife and I are home, we get to spend some quality time with the rugrat. As much as I appreciated the staff at the day care the education there can’t compare to the home schooling she now gets...

As a former worship leader and CCM/P&W hired gun I've had occasion to interact with many home-school families over the years, and without exception they make the identical claims regarding both quality education and quality time; speaking as both a parent and a retired NYC classroom teacher, if I had it to do all over again I'd choose home-schooling for mine in a minute, and I strongly suspect that many parents who make the same discovery you did will be pursuing similar options in the long term...

[jwayne]

My silver lining is the hope that major societal changes will result from the pandemic, including but not limited to:

- a new approach to health care in the USA, including a greater effort towards mitigating the effects of poverty on health outcomes

- a wider recognition of the harm that so much consumption of animal products is causing the planet (zoonotic diseases, climate change...)

- a return to global cooperation in health matters (like future pandemics)

- domestically sourcing certain critical products

- a greater acceptance for telecommuting that will eventually allow folks greater flexibility in where they live and the resultant reduction in population density in some of the more problematic areas

[RP]

I suppose the biggest silver lining for me is that I'm retired, and my income hasn't been affected as yet by the shutdowns. Given I'm somewhat of a hermit and really like where I live so our Governor's Stay-at-Home order doesn't phase me. I feel for those who have said that it's like a prison sentence - I retired from working in the prison system so I have more than a little experience with that. Those who have never been inside a prison cell and compare their current situation should know that the typical cell is about the size of a large walk-in closet and has two bunks and a toilet. I believe that many inmates are being locked down 23/7 these days so they darn well better be on decent terms with their cellmate...

[Nyghthawk]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

As a former worship leader and CCM/P&W hired gun I've had occasion to interact with many home-school families over the years, and without exception they make the identical claims regarding both quality education and quality time; speaking as both a parent and a retired NYC classroom teacher, if I had it to do all over again I'd choose home-schooling for mine in a minute, and I strongly suspect that many parents who make the same discovery you did will be pursuing similar options in the long term...

Having worked in child protective services I have seen about 100 "home schooled" kids. 3 were better off than in public school. Most parents have a strong suit, maybe two but cannot do the entire task. Just sayin'.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Having worked in child protective services I have seen about 100 "home schooled" kids. 3 were better off than in public school. Most parents have a strong suit, maybe two but cannot do the entire task. Just sayin'.

Took my first Masters in Psychology, second in Elementary Ed...

Seen probably 200-300 home-schooled kids, and at least 25 times that number in public-school classrooms over a 30+ year career...

In most cases the parents form a sort of cooperative, drawing upon their respective strengths to educate not only their own but each others' children when the subject material becomes too advanced for a generalist: one will specialize in Math, one in Literature, one in Science, etc. ...

The kids have plenty of opportunities to socialize in both formal and informal settings - play dates, small-group outings, etc. - and they're free to do so without the constraints of school-bus drivers' schedules or "large-group days" of the various cultural institutions...

Dealing with these kids is refreshing: they're quite well-adjusted in social situations (whether with peers or adults), unlike the overwhelming number of their public-school counterparts there's an inherent ability to focus on task (and less time spent glued to portable electronic devices during down time), virtually no bullying (something the public system has been unsuccessfully trying to combat for years), and a level of self-control and respect I haven't seen in a public-school classroom since my own elementary-school days in the '50s/60s...

As Mbroady notes, family relationships - the importance of which is crucial to a child's psychosocial development - are far stronger as a whole, and I'm happy to see he's made the discovery; regarding the need for protective services, I've only seen one (particularly egregious) case where they were warranted - as I said I have the background and training to recognize abusive situations, and I've used it on many occasions in the public system - and being in a position to compare I've found the home-school kids to be far better off as a whole than those in the typical neighborhood public school, on many levels...

I hope that this unfortunate state of affairs will indeed be a time of rediscovery for all concerned; many times in history it has taken a grave situation to focus us on what really matters - may it be so in our present day...

[6 Strings MI]

Originally Posted by jwayne

A new approach to health care in the USA, including a greater effort towards mitigating the effects of poverty on health outcomes

What other specific examples would you like to see?

I'm not going to start on the bit about consumption of animal products, but domestically sourcing products (and not just critical ones) is spot-on. As was stated in another thread, we have also become far too reliant on China, and it is my hope that said reliance will be greatly reduced...or, better yet, eliminated.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Having worked in child protective services I have seen about 100 "home schooled" kids. 3 were better off than in public school. Most parents have a strong suit, maybe two but cannot do the entire task. Just sayin'.

My wife teaches a class of challenged and at risk kids. What's going on right now is good where the parents are involved and not good where she is the tough love, strict and order person they don't have right now.

I'm not totally against home schooling but am a leader in a non-profit with 600+ kids in programs, and where I work we hire lots of young people. There's no doubt a pattern where a noticeable amount of kids who've been home schooled are behind at some social things where they usually get it figured out.

Two of my brother in law's ex's and mother of his 3 kids totally messed up on home schooling. 3 kids who were educated by not particularly educated and disciplined women. Two were helped getting into classrooms later. The one who was always home schooled is a lost 19 year old drug addict. Our understanding is she can't deal with structure and norms that are how most of us make a living. I always worry when a kid like that doesn't get structure and discipline on time.

I hated conventional k-12 years but they taught me "deal with it". Then the university taught the foundation for where I am now.

[jpd]

#1- My daughter, a flight attendant out of JFK , escaped from NY before this pandemic made NY the #1 viral hotspot.

#2- see 1

#3- I have TP paper