Redefining quality family time in lockdown
In time of test, family is best. This Burmese proverb has withstood the test of time. What could be more catastrophic, than the test we mortals are facing today in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic. Social media has unfailingly risen to the occasion and is churning out fact, fiction and factoids.
While sieving fake news from genuine, a predominant message that strikes you is how this unsolicited slowdown in the unrelenting race of mankind and the resultant confinement has effected a rarity called family time, the only silver lining! But, are we prepared for this equally challenging task?
Every social influencer worth his/her salt is dispersing nuggets of wisdom on how to optimally use the accidental ‘we time’ that we have been blessed with. There’s a discerning list of activities that an ideal, at present idle, family can indulge in, to strengthen its bond while making the most of this windfall. Contrary to the emotional invocation are the crudely honest memes, depicting the fallout of too-much-time in proximity of cohabitants. One meme showed a herd of zombies with the caption, ‘Parents after a month of school shutdown’.
There’s a deluge of witty ones too, parodying the travails of being locked up with one’s spouse for an unprecedented duration.
While these provide comic respite, they pose an intriguing question, too. Is the concept of quality family time, a matter of priority for us or a matter of convenience/compulsion? Do we frequently and effortlessly engage in activities of common interest with our spouse, kids and elders in the family?
Social distancing being the most potent weapon to check the spread of Covid-19, a majority of us are adhering to the nationwide lockdown, resulting in a blessed opportunity to spend quality time with our families. Enthusiastically, we too plundered the storeroom to dig out the archived carrom board and other card/board games to justify the chanced upon family time. Retaining the interest of a perpetually bored teenager (my son) with board games may seem a faux pas in the times of OTT platforms and gaming apps. A time when family bonding is engineered by technology and fuelled by shared passion for screen time. One may argue that this also qualifies as family time. I’d prefer calling it ‘quality screen time’ that members of a family spend, rather kill, simultaneously under one roof, that too, preferably in different rooms.
Yes, it’s being alone-together not together-together. It’s either technology within the four walls or entertainment outside that comes to our rescue, to tide over the taxing ‘together time’. Without these buffers, how well are we equipped to communicate and be comfortable in each other’s company?
Amid the race to meet professional, personal, social and academic deadlines, we need to slow down, introspect, interact and get intimate with the unfamiliar familial faces around us, occasionally, without technology. For a change, let’s talk not text, let’s dine in not out, let’s relish a meal while facing each other, not an animated screen, let’s play a real, not virtual game. Let’s share cooking and housekeeping chores. Let’s cherish the precious family time, together-together not alone-together. Because, not only in the time of test, family is forever best!
LET’S TALK NOT TEXT, LET’S RELISH A MEAL FACING EACH OTHER, NOT AN ANIMATED SCREEN