I’m not even sure I know what month it is anymore. While I’m extremely thankful this pandemic hasn’t caused any huge issues in my family’s life, I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been hard.
One of the hardest parts? Not being around friends and family. We have continued keeping our “social distance” and will keep doing so until we feel “comfortable.” Everyone obviously has their own personal opinions on how they want to approach things such as traveling and in-person visits. Here’s how my family and I are staying in touch with friends and family during these crazy times.
4 Ways to Stay in touch
FaceTime
FaceTime has been the savior in all of this. We FaceTime my parents at least once a day so they don’t feel like they’re missing out on any milestones with the kids. They probably get sick of how often we call them at this point, but it’s important to me that my youngest who is a year old can hopefully form some sort of bond even if he isn’t able to physically be around them. We also FaceTime my sisters and our close friends often. It’s great to be able to have a face to a voice versus just a regular phone call sometimes.
Here are some fun to ways to include FaceTime in your day:
- FaceTime and Coffee Chats (Or evening FaceTime and Drinks!)
- Playdate calls. For some reason, my kids really enjoy FaceTime with other kids.
- 3 way FaceTime Calls. If you didn’t know, you can have a three-way call via FaceTime! The more the merrier.
Zoom
My one year old had his first birthday party via the Zoom app this year. It made me incredibly sad, but also thankful that others were still able to virtually celebrate with us. We had everyone up on the screen and sang happy birthday and they got to watch him destroy his cake. It was actually a lot of fun!
Zoom is a great app because you can add multiple friends and family to one call. We have had “game nights” with friends via Zoom. And while it is not the same as being with them in person, it is better than not being able to see them at all.
Pen Pals
My 4-year-old daughter and her babysitter became “pen pals”. They do art projects or create a fun game for one another and drop them off in their mailboxes. Not only does it give my daughter something to look forward to, it gets us out of the house to take a short drive when it’s our turn to “deliver.” She loves it and it warms my heart.
Driveway Art
We love decorating our driveway with different colored chalk and writing inspiring messages on it. It makes me happy to know that when people are on their walk, they can come past our driveway and hopefully smile. Here is a website full of fun sidewalk/driveway ideas!
What is your family doing to stay in touch during social distancing?
