Household chores in the time of COVID-19 never seem to end.
We are now many weeks into social distancing and isolation at home due to COVID-19, and as a mom to three very active young children, I’m taking it day-by-day, and, at times, hour-by-hour. Like many parents, my household responsibilities grew exponentially overnight.
I’m preparing three meals a day and many snacks for our family of five. The dishes overfill our dishwasher every night.
Laundry, which has always been overwhelming, is particularly unwieldy perhaps because we’re spending a lot of time outside, which inevitably leads to multiple clothing changes per day, per child.
Before the pandemic, I was fortunate to have a cleaning person twice a month, a luxury I’ve always appreciated but particularly appreciate and miss right about now. While also feeling hypersensitive about germs, cleanliness is all-consuming.
This means I’m not only homeschooling my first grader, keeping my preschooler and toddler engaged, doing laundry and dishes, and stressing over how to secure groceries (anyone else obsessively checking Instacart and Amazon/Whole Foods delivery slots?). I’m also scrubbing toilets, vacuuming, changing linens, wiping counters, and tidying up around the clock.
While I fantasize about running away from my everyday household chores, I’ve found a way to escape them figuratively. Audiobooks to the rescue.
I love to read, haven’t commuted in years, and prefer listening to music when I exercise. Audiobooks have never really appealed to me. Until now.
It all began when I was reading a review of Jessica Simpson’s autobiography, Open Book, which suggested that the audiobook, narrated by Simpson, is a great way to delve into the story.
And so, I signed up for a trial of Audible, downloaded the audiobook, popped on my headphones, and dove into my standard 45 minutes of laundry folding. Before I knew it, I was done with the laundry and wishing I had another basket awaiting me.
After I finished Open Book, I decided to move on to another autobiography that’s been on my reading list for a long time, Becoming, by Michelle Obama. This time I used the free digital offerings of my local library and an app called Libby.
There’s an intimacy of hearing someone tell their story to you through an audiobook. You can really hear the emotion in the author’s voice, like when Jessica Simpson shares the devastating loss of a close family member or Michelle Obama opens up about the impact of her husband’s political aspirations on her career and their family.
Audiobooks have become a calming place for me, amidst a world of uncertainty and, at times, chaos at home. They help me get through mundane tasks and provide a brief respite from daily life.
