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Parents are juggling three jobs at once during the coronavirus pandemic

Staying home to stay safe has parents working triple duty. Dr. Alexis Wilbert, a Yarmouth psychologist, says there are three things parents can keep in mind to help.

BREWER, Maine — Editor’s note: You are starting to hear the term ‘flattening the curve’ as a way to stem the tide of coronavirus cases. The above video explains what that means. 

"There are days that I think we knock it out of the park and there are days that everything goes completely sideways."

Robyn Schnaible normally works from her home in South Portland. So that piece of the stay-home-to-stay-safe puzzle wasn't too difficult to figure out. However, now her 6-year-old twins are learning from home and her husband, Cory, is also working from home due to the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic. When they aren't working, they are playing the role of a kindergarten teacher.

They say the most challenging thing for them right now is finding the time to do anything without interruptions. And they aren't alone.

Many families are experiencing those interruptions. Family time is diluted by phone conferences and deadlines are clashing with snack times. As workloads increase, screen time, unwillingly, also goes up.

"It's been a drastic change trying to work online with them home but luckily my husband is able to help out quite a bit," said Brittany Bubar, a mom to two young kids in Brewer. "Otherwise it would be impossible."

"I try to do most of my stuff when my husband is home but it doesn't always work out that way," said Jessica Gagne, a mom to three kids.

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Gagne's 15-year-old son, Niko, has autism and she says that can make the balancing act even more complicated. She is a personal trainer and can do some work from home, however, she feels the need to dedicate more time to helping her son and two daughters navigate this confusing time.

"I think it's day by day," she said. "I think we do our best and sometimes that's all we can do."

"This is hard," said Dr. Alexis Wilbert, a psychologist based out of Yarmouth. "This doesn't feel like a choice for a lot of people."

Dr. Wilber says there are three things you can do to help get through the day.

First, set a flexible schedule. More like a rough outline.

"Ok I want there to be some learning today, I want there to be some movement today I want there to be some creativity today," she explained.

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Credit: NCM

Next, set up age-appropriate "work" for your kids to do while you need to get some work done.

"Kiddos as young as a year old can do work," Dr. Wilbert said with air quotes. "Just the other day we got out construction paper for our daughter and got out some legos and said pick which one goes to which color and that's their work."

And finally, she says, be patient with yourself.

"What we are being asked to do is not really possible so having some grace and some patience to say, 'I am struggling with this.'"

At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus

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