It has been now three weeks since school, kindergartens and all public facilities have closed here in Germany. The streets are more or less empty here in my area but supermarkets are still very busy. So far barely anyone wears any “masks” so I still get sometimes those weird looks when I go out to get groceries wearing a mask and gloves. Well I don’t really care about those looks by the others as long as I am able to protect myself a bit with these methods. After all I am the one going out for my family and my parents to get everything necessary and I don’t want anyone to catch COVID-19 here. In my hometown there are over 30 cases by now and the refugee center is on quarantine as there are multiples cases there with over 400 refugees in that center.
Life at home is pretty wild. The kids haven’t been outside for the past two weeks except for running around the big balcony. We don’t want them to go out as there are still tons of kids playing together outside and we want to keep the risk as low as possible. Nathan has now twice a week Mandarin classes online to kill some time and we try to let him study on his own each day for 30 – 45 minutes. Nathalie on the other hand is still too young for studies so well there is only madness with her right now. Sure Disney+ is available here as well now but no way we would let her watch TV several hours a day.
To make things even worse is the weather. Since January we had only rain until the 13th of March, the very same day everything closed and people are not “allowed” to meet up anymore with others. We had the past three weeks so good weather and no way to use it with the kids. Today was the warmest day of the year with wonderful sunshine and the kids had to stay home, just wonderful. Of course we could take them to the nearby parks and forest but they are so full of people right now. I have not seen so many people there ever in my life and I am there every day due to taking Haruki out for his daily walks.
Let’s see how the situation will develop in the next weeks. So far Germany is still managing it rather well but it could be much better if people really took better care and not disobey the regulations all the time such as having big meetings in public etc.
How are people following the local guidelines during this crisis?
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I see so many people outside now, too. They had to close all the beaches. Luckily, the dogs and I walk early, when everyone else is still sleeping and we don’t see many people.
I am trying to avoid people as much as possible when out with the dog (4 times a day). So often I am changing all the time the street side to avoid some groups of people
Right? I feel like I’m slaloming from one side of the street to the other.
We are allowed to exercise once per day here so we’ve been going for a walk. My son has been enjoying going out on his scooter. It makes a big difference in his mood. We are also fortunate to have a small garden so at least he can play outdoors a bit but working from home with a child at home is a real challenge!
At first we went out with the kids as well to bicycle around here but by now those places are packed with children playing together. So for now they stay indoors and it is not easy to take care of them and maintain somehow our business and do all the paperwork
Wow, with so many people outside I wonder how Germany is managing to keep its numbers so good hahaha.
Being with children locked at home sucks! Stay strong!
It also depends where you are when going out.
The parks are packed with people when the weather is nice (hasn’t rained here in weeks after the first three months were constant rain) and the city centre is basically dead
Hopefully the children aren’t too much of a handful :S Your balcony is quite big if Nathan and Nathalie can run around it and have some fun there. Here in Australia things are very quiet. Most shops except the groceries are shut, and we have to put up with racism here. The parks are quiet here and even beaches have closed. Also police have been issuing fines to people who are hanging around.
So it really is staying indoors here for now and sitting around at home.