Daily quarantine thought: For moms missing their work during the quarantine

This morning I set out to write something inspiring for parents stuck at home during the quarantine. I’m positive that it would have been very profound and beautiful, too, if the ABC Mouse app my son was using hadn’t abruptly stopped working as soon as I opened my laptop.

Then my daughter, who only seconds ago was happily absorbed in her teething toy, decided to drop it on the floor and and burst into tears until I fetched it. Once. Then again. And again. And again.

Related: Relax. You’re going to survive the COVID-19 school closures.

So instead of some hard-won reflection on this strange and scary life we’re all living, I’m serving you a quote from Dorothy Sayers’ novel A Presumption of Death, set during WWII.

It would be preposterous of her to complain that the war stopped her writing detective stories when it was stopping so many people from more important work, stopping many people . . . even from drawing breath. . .  But the fact was, she was also missing her profession. Writing scrappily, constantly interrupted, at a little bureau in the sitting room certainly wasn’t the deeply absorbing and consoling thing that work used to be.

Whatever absorbing and consoling thing you’re going without these days — even if it’s just taking an uninterrupted shower — you’re not alone. And it won’t last forever. Hang in there, friends.