This month in Manitoba, the provincial government is relaxing many of the restrictions we’ve followed over the last two years to protect ourselves and our community from COVID-19.
While we have all missed being able to attend large gatherings and to travel easily, some of us are more ready to jump back into the “old ways” than others.
So our question is: given what we’re now *allowed* to do, what do we *want* to do?
This is an opportunity
We’ve navigated a lot of changes in the two years since March 2020. Many of them we can’t wait to reverse (a return to family dinners! and cultural events! and tourism!)… but others, maybe not.
Your family may have settled into a pandemic-driven routine of washing hands immediately upon entering the house, or sneezing into elbows… or *not* blowing out candles on desserts other people will eat. Or you may have set up a weekly Zoom meeting with Grandma rather than calling on the phone.
The lifting of restrictions doesn’t have to mean a rollback of any of these new routines that are working for you. They feel normal to your kiddos and they work for you… so keep ’em!
But one thing we should all try to do, as much as we can, is to begin re-connecting with important people we may have lost regular contact with due to pandemic changes.
The gift of re-connecting
In late February, we connected with each of our Junior Kindergarten Enrichment Program students’ parents to discuss their children’s learning and progress.
It was such a rewarding experience for us – we have missed the casual drop-off and pick-up chats with our parents every day over the last two years! – and we will be reaching out to do the same with all our parents in the weeks to come.
Whether it’s by Zoom, or by online chat, or by phone, or in person, we’re all ready to re-connect. Let’s do it, in all the ways we can comfortably do it, as often as we can.
Connection is a beautiful gift. Let’s welcome it.
