R2| Friday, April 3, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Full-Time Mom,
Full-Time Work
What to Put in Your
Emergency Home-Care
Kit in Case You Get Sick
batteries (there is a pulse-oximeter app
available for the iPhone, but none of the
doctors we spoke to recommended it); sa-
line nasal spray; thermometer; Tylenol/ac-
etaminophen (children’s or infant’s ver-
sions if applicable).Anyone who falls ill should keep in con-
tact with their doctor and let them know
if symptoms worsen. To that end, a ther-
mometer is helpful. Since Covid-19 can af-
fect breathing, several doctors also recom-
mended obtaining an at-home pulse
oximeter: a device that clips onto the fin-
ger and measures heart rate and blood ox-
ygen levels, which are important indicators
of how well the lungs are functioning, says
Andra Blomkalns, chair of emergency med-
icine at Stanford School of Medicine. Oxi-
meters are sold over the counter at phar-
macies and retailers.
Have your regular cold medicines on
hand and Tylenol or acetaminophen. If the
patient is under 18, make sure you have
children’s or infant’s versions.
“For the vast majority of kids, you can
just stick to the items you would normally
use for influenza or other respiratory ail-
ments,” says Danielle Zerr, chief of pediat-
ric infectious diseases at Seattle Children’s
Hospital. It is difficult to get children toSPECIAL REPORT |NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS
Q & A
I
’m writing this from my new office: the
lower bunk of a bunk bed.
My 7-year-old son, Gabe, is of course
home from his New York City public
school, and I’m home from my Manhat-
tan office. As we stay largely confined
to our house, I’m Gabe’s main playmate and
human connection. He wants to be with
me, near me, in the same room as me, ev-
ery minute of the day.
So I’ve set up my office in Gabe’s bunk
bed. I work on my laptop, with my phone
next to me, as he alternates between school
assignments at his little desk, playing on thefloor near me, and climbing on top of me.
I haven’t spent this much time with my
son since I returned to work when he was 5
months old. He’s been in the full-time care of
others—his day-care provider, then school-
teachers and after-school counselors or, dur-
ing summers, camp counselors—from 8 a.m.
until 6 p.m. every weekday. I never wanted to
be a stay-at-home mother, and, financially, it
wasn’t an option. I had my son on my own in
2012, a single mother by choice.Separate roles
Foryears,Isetupmylifeupinawaythat
compartmentalized parenthood and work.
At my office, I was laser-focused. I rarely
thought about my son even though photos
of him hang on the sides of my computer
screens. At home after 6 p.m., I blocked out
thoughts of work, trying to make up for the
time away from Gabe.The fragile, intricate structure that
had made my hectic life workable has
now collapsed. Sure, the boundary be-
tween work and home life has been
blurring for years because of email and
cellphones. But it has now truly van-
ished, exposing how precarious our
work-life “balance” was even before the
virus hit.
Now I’m a stay-at-home mother and a
work-from-home mother at the same
time, trying to do both full-time jobs at
once, feeling totally overwhelmed. Mil-
lions of parents are in the same position
these days. I’m bombarded with well-
meaning suggestions for online children’s
activities and learning resources. I have
no time to look at them, because every
moment when I’m not paralyzed with
stress or indecision, there are three other
things urgently needing my attention.My colleague Rachel Feintzeig has
two toddlers, and her husband is a doc-
tor working long hours at the hospital.
As she said recently, “This crisis has
shown how much we were already hang-
ing on by a thread.” Another colleague,
Tom Gryta, wrote to me in an email,
“The adjustment to two people working
at home with three children is sort of ri-
diculous and a bit unsolvable.”
Gabe and I recently moved in with my
boyfriend and his 12-year-old son, who’s
with us half the week. We’re among the
lucky ones. As the virus ravages New
York City and the economy nosedives,
I’m watching with growing anxiety. But
we’re healthy so far and so are our fami-
lies. Friends who have been ill with the
virus are recovering. I can work from
home, my income is stable, and we have
a house with a backyard and more space
than most New Yorkers.We considered sending the boys to
our parents, who live in Connecticut and
North Carolina. But both of our fathers
have heart conditions, and all our par-
ents are in their 70s or 80s. They’d love
to see the boys, but it’s just too risky. As
is the case for thousands of families, the
backup help that makes our lives as
working parents possible is not available.
In order to get my work done—and for
journalists, workloads have increased in
these times—my workday begins at 7:30
a.m. when I check for emails and texts
from editors and sources I’ve been des-
perate to hear back from. It ends at 10 or
11 p.m. Some days, my most productive
hours come after Gabe’s 9 p.m. bedtime.
During my 16 or so waking hours, I
work in 30- or 45-minute sprints, steal-
ing time when Gabe is occupied with
schoolwork, practicing guitar or watching
nature documentaries, which I’ve deemed
educational programming. Even when
he’s “occupied,” he keeps up a stream of
commentary, directed at me or just into
the air. Silence isn’t his strong suit. He
wants constant interaction.
During free reading time, he describes
to me the plots of his books and shares
little facts. When he does his 30 minutes
of reading practice on i-Ready, one of the
many online teaching tools parents at his
school have been asked to download,
he converses aloud with the story
characters or volubly complains to me
that the exercises are too easy or too
hard.Endless tasks
School does many things for children,
but what I understand in high defini-
tion now is that in addition to book
learning it provides children with
ready access to dozens of playmates.
Playing, talking, arguing, working out
differences, creating imaginary scenar-
ios, having crushes and enemies and
frenemies: These are the mental and
emotional calisthenics school provides.
Gabe loves music, and these days
Bon Jovi, Ratt, Black Sabbath, AC/DC
and Led Zeppelin are on heavy rota-
tion on our Spotify account. Thank-
fully, I’m used to working in a news-
room, so I can tune out a lot of noise,
even Twisted Sister.
Wetrytotaketwowalksadayin
our Brooklyn neighborhood to get
some fresh air and exercise. Some-
times I need to take a work call
while we stroll, so Gabe trots along
beside me, chattering to himself or
fighting imaginary sword battles.
Early in the work-from-home days,
I started a 3,000-piece puzzle. It’s
too large for any of our tables, so it’s on
the floor near the front door. It was sup-
posed to calm me down, but it’s become
one more thing that taunts me with its
endless incompletion. Like cleaning the
bathroom, it hangs over me as an un-
done task. My family is eager for me to
give up on the puzzle and put itaway;
it’s getting in everyone’s way. I keep an-
nouncing that I’m surrendering. Then I
find another piece that fits, feel a shot
of satisfaction, and announce that I’m
sticking with it.
As I wrote those last words, Gabe
put a song on Spotify that I hadn’t
heard before: Quiet Riot’s “Mama, We’re
All Crazy Now.” I’m afraid it’s true, or
will be soon.Ms. Weberis a Wall Street Journal
reporterinNewYork.Shecanbe
reached [email protected].MARTIN TOGNOLA; ICON: ISTOCKwith water is that sugar can make diarrhea
worse. Sugar-free beverages with artificial
sweetener aren’t recommended either, be-
cause that, too, can worsen gastrointestinal
problems, Dr. Chun says. She recommends
pectin-rich foods like bananas and apples to
ease symptoms of diarrhea.
Some patients tend to lose their appetite
when sick, especially children, so Dr. Zerr rec-
ommends having on hand comforting, high-
calorie but nutrient-dense foods like apple
sauce and avocados.
A couple of doctors recommended a daily
multivitamin and vitamin C tablets. “And
never underestimate the power of chicken
soup,” says Mark Hyman, head of innovation
at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional
Medicine. “Protein is very important when
fighting viral illnesses.”
He recommends adding dill, oregano and
ginger to soups for their antiviral properties.
One of Dr. Hyman’s favorite home remedies
is his “cold-buster tea”: a 2-inch chunk of
fresh ginger root, sliced thin, boiled in a pot
of water for several minutes. Add fresh
lemon juice, honey and cayenne pepper.
Steep for five minutes. “It becomes this spicy,
sweet and tangy thing,” he says. “It’s great.”Ms. Potkewitz is a writer in New York.
She can be reached at [email protected].BYLAURENWEBERThe life/work balance has
always been precarious. Now
it’s overwhelming.wear a face mask, so the caregiver must
wear one at all times when interacting
with the sick child, she says. The child’s
Covid-19 symptoms may be mild, but “it’s
the same virus, and it’ll be much worse in
an adult,” she says.Food and drink
NUTRITION SUPPLIES:chicken soup; daily
multivitamin and vitamin C tablets; elec-
trolyte-replacement drinks (if using sports
drinks, cut in half with water); fresh ginger,
lemons, dill, fresh or dried oregano; high-
calorie, nutrient-rich foods like avocados;
honey for throat soothing; pectin-rich
foods like bananas and apples.As with any flulike virus, it is important
that the patient drink plenty of fluids. Oc-
casionally, Covid-19 can cause gastrointes-
tinal distress and diarrhea, and replenish-
ing fluids in those cases is especially
important, as dehydration can worsen a fe-
ver, Dr. Blomkalns says. Electrolyte-re-
placement drinks are recommended, but
popular sports drinks like Gatorade tend to
have high amounts of sugar, so they should
be cut in half with water for both children
and adults, she says.
Another reason to cut sports drinksEVERYDAY RISKSIs it safe for a
housekeeper to
clean the house?
A: Experts are mixedon
this. Some say it is fine if
the cleaner and no one in
the household is sick.
Take precautions, such as
maintaining a 6-foot dis-
tance, and have the
cleaner wear disposable
gloves, changing them
multiple times.
But others, like James
Campbell, a professor of
pediatrics at the Univer-
sity of Maryland School
of Medicine, say in areas
with Covid-19 outbreaks
where social distancing is
being enforced, people
should avoid all unneces-
sary personal interactions,
which increase the risk of
spreading the disease.What should
we do about
routine dentist
appointments?
A: In a statementissued
March 16, the American
Dental Association called
on dentists nationwide
to postpone nonurgent
dental procedures for
three weeks to help slow
the spread of Covid-19.
That time frame may be
extended. The ADA has a
guide that shows what is
considered a dental
emergency and what can
be rescheduled for a
later time.How safe are
swimming pools
and hot tubs?A: Currently,there is no
evidence the virus can be
transmitted to humans
through pools or hot tubs,
according to the CDC.
Proper maintenance and
disinfection (through the
use of chlorine and bro-
mine) should eliminate
the virus that causes
Covid-19.Hospital in New York City. “You want the
mask to catch the particles from a
sneeze, so it’s not spewing out the sides
or the bottom,” she says.
You’ll also need gloves—rubber or la-
tex—when you enter the sickroom or when
you clean. Stock up on cleaning supplies,
because everything the sick person
touches—like cutlery, doorknobs or the
bathroom sink—must be cleaned. You can
make a DIY bleach preparation by diluting
five tablespoons of bleach per gallon of
water. Regular hand soap is crucial, too.
If the bathroom is shared, sick people
should use disposable paper towels, Dr.
Buchholz says. Keep their bath towels sep-
arate from everyone else’s. And healthy
family members should remove their toi-
letries from the shared space.Medicine
MEDICAL SUPPLIES:cough drops; over-the-
counter cold medicines; pulse oximeter andContinued from the prior pageFor more questions and answers on the coronavirus, as well as continuing updates, go to wsj.com/livecoverage/coronavirus.
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