The galleys of a French single mother in New York

First day. It is 7 am, the alarm rings in my small apartment in New York. Wake up my 5-year-old daughter, have her have lunch, dress her up while avoiding any conflicting situation such as “no pants, I look like a boy”, “I want these glitter sandals”, and so on. Untangle her hair, plus the screams and crying that ensue. We’re ready to go, as usual at full speed, because being early isn’t (yet) part of my vocabulary.

Here we are on the train. On the program: Barbie game, riddles, revision of “flashcards”. At only 7.45 a.m., I already had the impression that it was noon. Get off at the school stop. Curiously, the train is less crowded than the previous days. I even find myself thinking that people today and in this society are really paranoid and hypochondriac. We descend the few blocks that separate us from the station and its school on the Upper West Side, a residential area of ​​Manhattan with a lot of intellectuals. A good day kiss, and I’m off towards the Alliance Française where my students are waiting for me. One of my students tells me that she will still avoid taking public transport for one or two weeks, so as not to endanger her parents if she ever catches the beast. Wise decision Susannah, I understand. I myself am starting to consider not sending my daughter to school for a week even if I am not sure why. A few emails later, I discover that my job decides to close for two weeks “to start”.

Between doubts and precautions

With that, pensive, I go get my daughter, and there, the alarm “bad mother” rings in my head, beep-beep-beep: only ten children were in class today. So according to my calculations, about 60% of moms are protective and responsible moms, which puts me in the remaining 40%. Not very reassuring.

Come on, it’s decided, Mélissa, next week, you stay with mom at home, it will leave time to disinfect the schools, the streets, my workplace, and within a week or two, this “corona I don’t know what ”will be gone.

Well, we still make the detour to my student for her private lesson, we call granny to wish her her birthday, we go through the Barnes and Noble bookstore to read some Fancy Nancy, and we take the Uptown train towards the house. Still people with a mask! Ridiculous! People believe that the virus is circulating there, in front of us, what ignorant people!

The next day, Bill De Blasio (the mayor of the city), in collaboration with Governor Andrew Cuomo, announces the closure of the schools for a month, “to start”. No, but a month is not a little much? If we do it together, we can disinfect the school in two stages three movements.

The optimist at the start

Okay, let’s take it on the bright side. My daughter is tired, she falls asleep every day on the metro on the way to and from school (when she is more like the hyperactive type). New York winter is not harsh this year, but if you have to stay at home for a while, it is better that it is in winter, and that you get rid of it in spring. It’s great, I who always dreamed of making him homeschooling : child-centered education, learning at your own pace, no trips, no bad visits. I’m going to be able to practice a little. Besides, I’m a teacher, so what could be more logical and more natural than going to school at home for MA girl ? So it starts, we connect to the Edmodo platform where the nice mistresses leave the job. Fastoche, fingers in your nose Charlotte, you’re going to get there, it’s your area of ​​expertise, you’re going to have fun with your daughter! Suffice to say that the first days are going like clockwork: juggling between the work to be prepared, connecting to live with the teachers. Ah, but I forgot, you also have to eat, stay, dress!

Damn ! The work, I forgot this detail. And this is where my “nightmare” started: “mom, which button should I press?”, “Mom, I must read the book on Epic”, “mom, must do the work that the mistress put ”,“ Mom, I’m hungry ”,“ mom, I’m thirsty ”,“ mom can i watch tv? ”,“ Mom, come with me to the bathroom, i’m scared ”, all this with my students in front of me on my computer screen. So I have to manage a 5 year old girl, my students (from 2 to 99 years old) and assess the priority at all times.

Unlimited screens (or almost)

Thank goodness my computer is light and you can carry it from room to room. So I can accompany my dear little blonde head (I laugh, she is more brown than blonde!) In front of the toilet, while continuing to explain the rules of agreement of the compound past. Me who made me feel like a good mother because at home, the screens were limited to the bare minimum, that is to say a few hours of Netflix per week, no iPad, no phone or video games, well, you might as well say that the efforts of five years have been ravaged by this damn coronavirus. Besides, during her lessons, I caught her in the act several times: sending emojis to her classmates, watching on YouTube the last clip of Taylor Swift, sending messages to my WhatsApp contacts, and I on the way.

On the other hand, we have developed non-verbal language well: the disapproving look which means “stop it immediately!”, The thumb which means “ok” or rather “as long as you leave me alone ok”, tap it on leg (mine, calm down!) to say “turn off this screen right away”. One look is enough to understand yourself now.

Living masked and getting to be understood

So on the other hand in the stores, my frank accent filtered with the mask becomes apparently incomprehensible: “One Diet Coke please” “OK, one ice cream ”,“ No, one Diet Coke ”, and good there is the moment when I must choose between lowering my mask to receive the right article, or having a surprise package. Normally, I opt for the number one option even if I am quite frequently shot by the salesperson opposite. Well, “excuse my french!”

Winter has passed, spring has passed at full speed, and summer has settled in as no one would have imagined. All New Yorkers are masked, and we also try to put a personal touch on his mask. Everyone used surgical masks at the start (myself included), thinking “go, only a few weeks”, and we can now see a majority of the population with cloth masks. Mickey Mouse masks for children, pink for girls, and so on. It has also become a real business, the sale of masks, I should perhaps get started … New York is a very hot and very humid city in summer, we sweat all day, so wearing a mask is a real ordeal: feeling of suffocation, tenfold heat, and worse: are we all going to end up with the brand of the mask instead of the brand of the swimsuit at the end of the summer? The pools and beaches are closed, so probably …

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