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Before, Between, and Beyond the Walls
Life after pandemic work-from-home and motherhood
Tearing Down the Walls
I’m a college professor who worked through pregnancy, gave birth in 2019, and in 2020, worked through the first worldwide online school year. Aside from caring for my infant son while I held Zoom classes and wrote modules on Canvas, I also homeschooled my daughter when schools closed down.
Before the pandemic broke out, I was looking forward to taking a leave from teaching in order to care for the baby. But when my husband, who’s a freelance chef, lost his projects lined up for the year as restaurants manically tried to cope with income loss, we resolved that I should keep on teaching until he finds another way to earn for the family.
One year later, I was battle-weary and severely broken by the impossible task of simultaneous full-time infant motherhood, full-time homeschooling, and full-time teaching. For a year, I was mostly home alone with the children and my online students, while my husband hustled outside. The goal was after a year, I should be able to quit teaching. We should be able to live on what he makes.
The day finally came, and though my husband wasn’t yet making a lot from the hustle that he’d turned into a small food business, I excitedly…
