JOIN USA new meaning to distancing
A few months back none of us used the term social distancing. It is surprising how this term has become the buzz word in such a short period. In the initial days of the lockdown, the mother in me was truly excited. What!! I never thought this is going to happen — the entire family in the house. It doesn’t happen in my house with children in different college hostels.
Now, this villain of a virus is making it happen for me. I decided I will look at the positive aspects. Yes, I am going to spend a lot of time with my family, in the house. Well, every one of my female friends in the same age group shared this anticipation. Yes, am referring to the initial days, you see! This is too good to be true, we thought. Young mothers, I am not referring to you. You must be very busy with the kids running around and throwing all kinds of tantrums. Am referring to those mothers with older children — older as in any child who is a teen or wants to continue being one.
I quickly looked up websites and whatnot for the fun things you can do with older children. The lockdown began and the quality time part was yet to happen. Give it some time, I thought. After all, this is a big change in routine for them. We are all together, under the same roof, we are bound to spend time together. I checked with my friends and we exchanged notes on this. Yes, everyone was sharing the same feeling.
I decided to observe how my children, my husband and myself spent time. And I realised the time spent in our social circles via the phone was way beyond what I thought it was. Of course, we were all on Zoom calls for working from home or online classes or happy hours with friends at various points of the day. Not to speak of the multiple Whatsapp chat windows and various social media apps. Yes, indeed we were very active, albeit the social distancing. We were so invested in engaging with our social circle, be it actual friends, FB “friends”, followers and whoever we were following.
For the very first time, you had an opportunity to engage with people whom you are very sure you won’t meet physically, at least for a while. No need to adjust to their demands, mannerisms and whatever you don’t like about them. Choose when you want to “engage” with them and for what. The same is not true for your own family, inside the house. So, this means, at home, you could continue to be ‘distanced’ from your family members. Physically close but yet distant from each other at home. With the rest of the world far away, social distancing in place, but social engagement like never before.
(The author is the host of the New Indian Woman podcast)