As of today we are starting a series from Rebecca, who is a teacher, mum of two young kids, unionist and Thomastown local, and I would add on maternity leave at the moment. She has very generously offered to share her journal over the next few weeks so we can all have a better understanding from someone else's experience. Thank you Rebecca.
19/3/20
Today is day six of self isolation for myself and my two kids, aged 4 months and 3.5 years old. I need to make a doctor appointment for my baby but my GP is only doing tele-appointments now. They stopped face to face appointments at the start of this week. Thankfully all I need is a referral so this shouldn't be a problem.
I chose to self-isolate because I see it as a social responsibility to those with low immune systems and to minimise the impact of mass infections on our hospitals. My big kid goes to daycare and an infection would spread quickly through his peers, his educators and all of their families. Fortunately I am on parental leave this year so I don't need to negotiate self-isolating with my employer. I see many of my colleagues struggling with the expectation that they should continue working, even though our profession puts us in direct contact with multiple people in the public every day.
A band I had tickets to see in May have just announced they're postponing their tour until September. I wonder if this is still optimistic. It's easy to fall into the stress of "how long will this last" so I try not to think about it too much.
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