Welcome back to the Motherhood in Quarantine Series! This is the fifth post in a series all about being a mother in quarantine!
Click here for post 1 by Kayla Tucker from San Diego, California!
Click here for post 2 by Jenna Hammer from Baltimore, Maryland!
Click here for post 3 by Lindsay Johnson from Riverside, California!
Click here for post 4 by Bethany Wagreich from Cinninati Ohio!
Hey! I’m Morgan Coulter, I am a 26 year homeschool mama of two. My son Owen is 3, and my daughter Harper is 10 months old. I am going on 5 years married to my husband Tom, who is an emergency department RN at our local hospital.
We live in Millville, NJ, on about 3 acres of land that we own. Currently it is me, my husband, our two kids, and my sister. My sister’s college shut down and sent them home so she came and quarantined with us so she could see the kids! We’re situated about 35 minutes from Philadelphia, 3 hours from NYC, and the close proximity to those “hot spots” is really evident here. Thankfully the weather has been beautiful, and we have enough space at home to do plenty of outside activities like gardening, home projects, and we were able to finish putting up our horse fencing during this time!
Since my kids are so little, we didn’t have to change up much of our schedule, but my 3 year old does feel it sometimes. We usually go to the local library, Target, play dates with friends, the zoo, and the park, but we haven’t been able to do ANY of that in over 9 weeks. He gets sad sometimes but we’ve been doing our best to keep him busy and having fun. Owen turned 3 on March 7th, but they cancelled his well check up because it wasn’t deemed necessary. My daughter Harper had to get her 9 month vaccinations so we went in for that and it was weird! The waiting room was closed so we had to wait in the car until they called us inside. I had to take her alone because they didn’t want spouses or siblings there if they didn’t have to be, and it was a very quick visit. Luckily, Harper is young enough that she didn’t even realize anything was different!
Financially, we’re some of the lucky few. I make a very small income from my online content creation, so that hasn’t changed for me much at all. My husband Tom is an emergency department RN and although he is in direct contact with Covid-19 daily, he is not missing any work, therefore our financial situation is fine. Recently they approved incentive pay so if he works an overtime shift, he actually makes more money than he normally would. I won’t speak too much for him, but from what he’s told me, it’s very stressful. He’s tired, overworked, and scared. At the “peak” of NJ cases, he was coming home in tears, terrified he was going to get us sick, or get sick himself. It’s really unsettling seeing my 6’3”, tattooed, bearded husband curled up in my arms sobbing because of the uncertainty of this virus. He even took out a second life insurance policy on himself because he was truly afraid. Now that the scariest part seems to be over, he’s trying to keep a sense of humor and positivity up at work and at home.
Our self-quarantine is now 9 weeks in and we’re slowly starting to see some reopenings. We are still required by law to wear masks everywhere, and pretty much everything is still closed. We can get takeout from restaurants, and “essential” businesses are opened, but I personally have been staying home. I’m not as much worried about getting sick as I am worried about being a carrier and passing it on to someone more vulnerable than me.
My best advice for other mamas out there is to stay connected. The online mom community can be an absolutely beautiful place, full of real friendships and connection, no matter how far away. Reach out to your friends, FaceTime people you normally would only text, work together on some ideas to keep your kids busy. Moms hold home and family together, now is the time we’re needed the most!
Stay safe and stay positive,
Morgan
Find Morgan on Instagram here!
Find Morgan and her sweet family on Youtube here!
