How I became the local “crazy bird lady” Episode 2

by Alicia Jay

Episode 2: The Pandemic…. Just after my daughter’s 9th birthday celebration, the world completely shut down. I was already working 50-60 hours a week at a job that (at the time) I thought would always be there for me as much I was for them. The pandemic proved otherwise. My health wasn’t good & my blood pressure was through the roof! Spring break came & the schools told us they would no longer be open to in person learning & we were forced to be, not just parents, but teachers as well while still trying to work. We were tasked with making sure these very young children could do the school work assigned to them virtually while still maintaining our own jobs (& sanity!).

Every morning I would make sure my daughter was ready & waiting for the zoom class & be allowed to be let into the virtual classroom. The beginning was definitely a learning curve for not just the parents, but the teachers as well! I would assist in everything she needed for an elementary school child & then once she was in her final zoom class meeting at 11am successfully, I would make my way into work.

Meanwhile, I was working from home from 7am until I left. Luckily for me, at the time, my work was on the same street as my home. I felt safe leaving her because of all my amazing neighbors & the fact that we had ring cameras everywhere along with Alexa devices. At any given moment she could contact me regardless of cellular devices (boy have things changed since my latchkey days!!!) That was when, what I thought was my “perfect” work family, would prove everything I needed to know. They had become so accustomed to me being everything & everywhere I hadn’t realized that they became solely dependent on me for literally everything. There was no more understanding of my being a single mother. No more perks of being in a family run business. It was every person for themselves during that time & me not being physically present for 4 hours of my work day was no longer acceptable. They never took into account the fact that I was there 7 days a week just to make sure everything was running smoothly & proficiently. I was salary & not hourly so although my dedication was never questioned, my time during normal business hours were. It was the worst time in the history of time, to make a career change. But I did. It was further from home & a lot less than I was making, but it wasn’t so stressful. That’s when I began to remember how peaceful life could really be. When I went home at the end of the day, I was HOME – not worrying about how the workplace would do without my presence. I won’t lie, I missed the fast paced work I had become accustomed to. I came & went back to this job a few times until I realized, the high blood pressure, the fast pace, the authority? None of it was really ME. During that time I was suffering financially- like a LOT! It was getting harder & harder to keep up.