Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast for the week of July tenth, twenty twenty
three. I'm Catherine Heleco and I'm here with Nicole Heretics. Hello, and
Terry Morrow. Hello. Every week we chat about what parents are talking,
complaining and obsessing about right now. But this week, as you may have
heard, things are changing and Nicole is leaving us. So we have been
listening to some of her favorite episodes from her long, long tenure, and
she has one more for us. So Nicole, tell us which one you
have picked. So the final one I chose was called social or is called
Social Distancing so Far, and again I picked it for a couple of reasons.
The first one being that this was one that we did near the beginning
of COVID, like when we had just all started quarantining in our homes and
uh kind of navigating this whole new world. And while that was all going
on around us, we still met to podcast, which leads me into the
second reason why I chose that. And really this, you know, Social
Distancing so Far represented a time in our lives, and you know, when
we look back on it, it can be considered really like an anthropological study
because we really did, um document a lot of things that were going on
in the world, and not just you know, what was happening in our
families, but was happening in our communities and and you know, in society
and all those other kinds of things. And so UM, that's why I
chose it this particular episode, because it really represented, um what you know,
we've we've done. We've not just talked about parenting, but we've talked
about our lives. And I am for ever grateful for having shared this time
with you both. You've been amazing to work with and share my life with.
So thank you, and I hope you enjoy this podcast listeners, and
thank you for listening to me for all these years. Today we're talking about
how everyone's doing with this social isolation, social distancing quarantine situation. Wow have
things changed since we talked about this last Wow. But it was just oh,
this funny thing that might happen, and wonderful it's going to go on.
And now that didn't take long. Twenty four hours after we talked about
it. Stuff was already going down. In the space of a week.
We've had my daughter pack up her dorm and come home and are the State
of California has officially announced a lockdown for all residents. The Canadian and US
border has closed to non essential travelers. The list is just growing by the
day. Yeah, so, how's it affecting both of you and your family's
What's what's happening in your home? I'm curious about California. What is considered
to be like essential and non essential? Can you still go get takeout?
Or is that non essential? That's that's essential? Actually I found somewhere it
was a list that came from a government website of essential and non essential services,
and it lists Yeah, so it gave a big long list of what
is considered. So takeout food is essential, right, so the workers who
provide said takeout food also would be essential then for them to get to their
jobs. Yes, yes, my daughter is still hanging in there at Wendy.
So I'm wondering how long that's going to be if they're if we do
a lockdown here, well, I guess we more or less. So,
I mean everything's closed, are they don't really have to tell you you have
to stay home? Where would you go? But yeah, it is.
I don't think there's they ordered. Let's see all restaurants are closed except for
takeout and delivery. They're slowly closing the moles, which in New Jersey is
a big deal. And I'm not sure about like just general stores. I
know everything has to close by eight pm and you're not supposed to be on
the road after that, so freaky. Yeah, see, we don't have
a curfew. We just well we just have to stay in our house.
But a lot of businesses, especially the small ones, have closed down.
Yeah, I feel terrible for them. I'm trying to, you know,
as much as possible. The local businesses that are still open, I'm trying
to give them business. And yeah, it's so weird. I mean,
it's not that much of a change of lifestyle for me because I work at
home and I really don't get out much. But I have a lot of
company now and exactly as I spend all of that. Yeah, and just
the news is distracting and constantly, like doing five minutes of work and then
seeing I wonder if there's anything new, have they announced anything else? I
better spend forty five minutes on Facebook and researching things. Um, and they're
always is stuff. There's always stuff that's happened in the five minutes I was
working. Oh, this is shut down, this is done, this is
closed, this is the latest figures. I but the company, Yes,
you have company to cantin. Oh, yes, plenty of that. Yeah,
it's it's usful for that reason. And you know, like my kids
are upset about things that are being canceled. You know, my daughter is
a senior. She's gonna we don't know yet, but it does seem like
she's going to miss out hunt. I mean, there's already definitely been things
canceled. Yeah, at least one of her two ice shows that she would
have been in and be recognized at one has definitely been canceled. The other
one is up in the air. All of her tryouts and college visits are
canceled. She's supposed to do video tryouts for two of the schools teams,
but all the rinks are closed, so I can't do that. So we're
waiting to see if, if, and when those will reopen. And and
the teams that are asking for these videos are aware that, you know,
there may not be the ability to do them right now. This is so
rough on this round of seniors and young people. And I keep telling,
I mean, my son's birthday is in March, and my daughter's birthday is
in April, and it's like any plans we may have had, as modest
as they were, are just now out the window. It's gonna be dinner
with mom and dad at home, yay. Right on. You know,
my daughter's turning thirty, so I wanted to do something really special for her,
and it's like, I don't think that's going to happen now, which
is easier for me because I don't have to think of anything. But still,
so I keep telling them, you know, when you're older, you're
gonna have such a good story. I remember the year I turned to thirty,
it was the craze about the coronavirus. And you know, the kids
who are seniors, they're gonna be always, always going to have that is
like this landmark that happened at this important time in their life. But it
doesn't feel good now. No, later on they will be, you know,
it will be a fun fact about themselves. Right now, it's stinks.
Yeah, I know, I m as you already know that I have
a mothstone birthday coming up in April, and oh yeah, I wasn't planning
anything, but Apparently my husband and my cousin and her family were making plans
for her to fly over from Australia to surprise me, so they had to
call. She called on Monday night and she said, you know, I'm
so sorry, but we had these plans and we're going to come and surprise
me for your birthday and celebrate, and U we had to cancel them.
I'm like, thanks, yeah, you know, And you feel bad complaining
about stuff like that because in the greater fame of things, you know,
you're alive, your family's healthy, yeah, and you don't have a business
that's going under. You've you know, you having come coming in and stuff.
But it's still darn it'ld have been fun, I know. And yeah,
it's just the little things that I think they just add up, right,
Yeah, every it's all relative, and because we all have these kind
of moments in our life that we look forward to and that right keeps us
going sometimes exactly. And now it just kind of feels like a big,
open ended Yes, it does feel open, and it's like a tunnel.
You're in a tunnel, right, Yeah. I keep reading different things.
Some people say, oh, this will I'll be over soon and some people
say this is kind to be on till the end of the year, and
it's like, I don't know how that happens exactly, but um, you
know, it's it's so strange that I think the last time we talked,
they had just made some changes at church for better hygiene, and then our
diocese announced that they would still be having masks, but you're released from the
obligation to go. And then after that they closed them down altogether. So
the churches are closed. I think you can go in for adoration or stuff,
but there will be no public masses. So like last Sunday, my
family and I sat on the couch and watched Mass at our church. The
priests from our church videotaped the mass and we sat on the couch and watched
it, and it was really nice. It's like, when time comes to
you know, round up my family and get dressed and get back into church.
It's going to be can't we just keep this My son, who's like
always jingling keys and making noise in church, sat perfectly still and quiet on
the couch for an hour. This works well for my family. Could we
keep this option? Right? Yeah? But I've been you know, utilizing
some prayer apps that have been having Facebook live things, and you know,
and the church has been putting stuff on YouTube. It's really interesting how all
these places are responding. Yeah, but it's still not the same, you
know as gathering as a parish, having communion all of that. It is.
It is heartwarming to see the things like you know, Laura Bnanty who's
a Broadway actress, asking kids who had their performances canceled to send her videos
of performances, and like in my school district, I know, all across
the country, people are very worried about kids not being able to get school
lunches because of school being canceled. And in our district, they mobilized like
overnight to deliver breakfast and lunch in one together, you know, not twice
a day, but one delivery of two meals to ninety seven bus stops around
the district and you have to just show up with a child, you know,
present, and then no questions asked. You can just get a meal.
You know, which is they're doing that in our school district. Who
the distributing it, Various of the schools, including the high school by us,
So you just come and like you said, no questions they ask,
they'll give you some. I don't know if they're doing that here. I
haven't heard anything like that. I mean, I know some people are worried
about the fact that you have to bring the kid and have them out in
public, but I assume you could kind of like wait in your car and
go, yeah, want at a time or something. But you know,
it's just impressive that they put that together. Yeah, you know, I'm
really I don't know why I'm really hyper focused on this one. I'm really
stressed about the families who are essential workers, but yeah, their kids can't
go to daycare because daycare is not essential. Daycarees are open here, are
they. Yes, it's a big thing because some people are feeling they should
be shut down because it's not safe for the daycare operators and all that stuff.
Why are they open and the preschools are closed? But as far as
I know, the daycares are still open here. They are open, but
they had to limit the number of kids, So I don't know how they
just side like who gets to go and who doesn't. Yeah, I mean,
I mean I've been you know, having worked outside of the home for
many years. When I was raising young children. The stress of having quality
childcare is huge. And yeah, I couldn't imagine. I mean, I
just oh, I just can't imagine what some families are having to deal with
right now in terms of finding appropriate care. I can't really believe how relatively
smoothly all of this has gone. You know, I'm sure there's individuals having
problems, and you know, you hear about different things, and like the
rest of the nation, apparently we cannot buy toilet paper in a store for
nothing, But other than that, folks seem to be kind of rolling with
it. Do you guys have from toilet paper where you are no side in
the stores. It's intermittent, depends on what time of day show up.
I went on Wednesday morning and there was none and there was chicken. This
is just so weird to me. Like they've been talking here about stores should
open have special hours just for seniors to come at a safe time, you
know, and come in and because of their vulnerable population, and do their
shopping and then they can get the stuff before everybody else gets it. So
store near Us opened it. They were opening to the public at seven thirty.
They opened at six am for seniors over sixty and Rick went there and
he said it was packed. He couldn't get a place in the parking lot,
and the whole front end of the store was jammed with people. And
I'm going, well, this is great. They're trying to do a nice
Instead they have all the senior population packed in as exactly how they're not supposed
to be, right if you don't want to leave. They don't want to
leave Grandma and grab outside in the cold with their number being allowed in only
a few at a time. But that doesn't work. So waiting to hear
if the Health inspector is gonna, you know, shut that down. But
there still wasn't toilet paper even then. Yeah, it's definitely uncharted territory.
Well that's it for today's memory from Nicole. And we are so sad to
see her go, but she has promised to maybe pop back in um if
she has some some news or something, you know, she's just dying to
talk about. We will welcome her back, she wants. In true entertainment
form, We're never really gone, and you always have the archives if you
ever need a little dose of Nicoles. But Terry and I are not going
away. Tune in on Tuesday for a new format with the two of us.
We will still be here um and you know, of course we're always
interested in what you have to say. And you can say good bye in
Nicole if you like, on our website, our Facebook page or Twitter,
which is where you'll find us that roundabout chat