Baltimore's Child Baltimore's Child
Baltimore’s Child is starting a new feature, Diary of a Parent. We invite parents to tell us about a day in their life in a video or in a write-up of 800 words or less. Diary entries can be sent to [email protected].
It didn’t seem right to ask readers to share their stories without also sharing mine. So, here’s a typical day in my life as magazine editor and mom of two. Typical in COVID-19 time, that is.
6 a.m. The cat wakes me up by patting my face. Valentino is a rescue from BARCS and right now is living his best cat life because we’re all home.
Who’s here? My daughter Leeannah is a junior at Temple University, who was studying at Dublin City University in Ireland this semester before being sent home because of the pandemic. My son is here, too. He is finishing his senior year in high school and holding out hope that his team can get in at least one baseball game.
We live in a rowhouse near Towson University and we have survived this time in close quarters by each commandeering a different floor of the house during the work day. My desk is the dining room table.
Read: When your kid wears the same outfit. Every. Day.
7 a.m. Coffee. Breakfast. Coffee. I read the New York Times and also Vogue’s enewsletter. I am participating in April’s poem-a-day challenge, which I would have never been able to pull off in regular time. But no commute means quiet time like this to write. Today I am also distracted, watching Allison Holker’s dance videos on Instagram
8 a.m. The day job starts. We are putting out a digital issue of Baltimore’s Child this month because many of the places where readers pick up the magazine, such as the library or the YMCA, are closed. My regular letter to readers in the issue will explain this and now I share it with our publisher so he can see what I wrote.
9 a.m. My son is up and in search of breakfast before his online classes start at 9:30. Today he also has a phone call with his guidance counselor to talk about his plans for next year. I check in with our Washington Family editor, our staff writer and our designers.
The rest of the morning. I answer email, post a story on our website and then promote it on our social media pages. I am working on a story about our collective recovery from this crisis and what parents and children can expect. An interview with a Sheppard Pratt psychologist is confirmed for this article.
12:30 p.m. I eat lunch with my daughter who is working on her design portfolio as her semester winds down. Her classes are over, and I miss the Irish accents coming out of her room as she Zoom attended various lectures on digital marketing.
Read: New motherhood after 35
1-5 p.m. I chat with colleagues about plans for future issues and brainstorm for what to include on our website in coming weeks. Our teams creates five magazines, including Baltimore Style, and I have to proofread the final pages for its May/June issue. I also proofread pages for the May issue of Baltimore’s Child and write BC.com, the page in the magazine that directs readers to what’s on our website.
It’s also a press conference day, so I tune in to hear what Governor Larry Hogan has to say while one of the kids walks to The Charmery to pick up two pints of ice cream. This is our new tradition, our pandemic guilty pleasure. On press conference days, I order curbside pickup.
If that’s my pandemic indulgence, my pandemic super power has been saving money. It’s amazing how much I can sock away since we don’t go anywhere and the car’s had the same tank of gas for three weeks. But I am by nature a money worrier; having two kids in college next year doesn’t help.
5 p.m. No commute means I can take a three-mile walk around my neighborhood and listen to “The Operator” by Gretchen Berg, which Style’s book reviewer writes about in the May/June issue.
6:30 p.m. The kids and I eat dinner together every night. This is our big block of time together and we talk about the news or watch TikTok videos. My daughter is wondering how soon she could return to Ireland and if she should attend graduate school there. My son wonders about plans for a summer prom for his senior class.
Read: Parenting in a Pandemic
There is a lather, rinse, repeat feel to these days. In general, I am grateful we are healthy, I try not to fret too much about the economy, and I really miss seeing my friends.
Finally, where would I want to be if there weren’t a pandemic? At the Yard, watching an Orioles game as the sun goes down on Eutaw Street. I can’t wait to do that again.
Send your Diary of a Parent to [email protected].
