7 Things You Might Just Miss After Lockdown

With efforts to ramp up the vaccine distribution in recent months, our country is now inching closer towards achieving herd immunity. Despite the haze of uncertainty, one thing we can now be certain about is our journey to recovery as lockdown restrictions slowly begin to lift. With most parents, life in lockdown meant shape-shifting their homes into workstations and classrooms. Suddenly, instead of your colleagues, your lunchmates are now your children! You are in the comfiest of clothes drinking from your favorite mug of coffee. Seated maybe at the kitchen table or in the bedroom-turned-office, you hear your children greeting their teachers through their tablets. Life in lockdown may have reeled all of us into a period of isolation and uncertainty, and if you are still struggling, here is a gentle reminder that it can get better. Ultimately, we learned to sustain ourselves through a newfound sense of appreciation, and of course flexibility and comfort. Here are 7 things you might feel the loss of post-lockdown: #1 Working From Home Image credit: Shutterstock One drastic measure the pandemic drove us to execute nationwide was the practice of working from home. This became a new norm and meant a massive lifestyle haul for most of us, including our children. Finding the ideal work-life balance may have been a task. You may have formed handy new routines and habits that enabled you to cope with the uprooting of daily life as we all knew it. The truth is, with remote working, you probably have been more productive than you think! Perhaps the extra dose of sleep in the mornings thanks to the work from home policy may also be the reason you find yourself more rested than before. Or maybe you've finally managed to slip in power naps during lunchtime as well, which boosted your overall work productivity. Working from home also means a lot of time and energy saved from not having to travel to work and school, amidst many other little perks... which brings us to the next point: #2 Extra Comfort in Every Wear! Image credit: Pixels Who isn't guilty of donning formalwear up top, coupled with mismatched pajama bottoms during video calls or classes? Definitely not just your children! One of the many perks of remote working, or working from home, is that gone are the days of worrying about tomorrow’s fit! Never have your wardrobe choices been such easy picks when work requires next to no, or maybe occasional full-length appearances. Even so, you might just have your fuzzy bedroom slippers on! There is simply nowhere else that provides you with the security and comfort, than your own home. Here, you are free to explore the different nooks around the home to get you in your zone and the same goes for the little ones! With the lunchroom, restroom, and classrooms being just a few steps away, your home has now become much more than where the heart is! #3 What Traffic? Image credit: iStock One glaring contrast in comparison to pre-pandemic life is the deserted roads and highways when Malaysia first sanctioned the movement control order. Districts once riddled with the wheezing and whirring of motor vehicles are miraculously emptied out. The next thing you know, you've arrived at your destination much quicker than usual! Neither have you been rushing to beat traffic in a long while. And best of all, if you resided in dense neighbourhoods or districts, surely you must have savoured moments of easy parking and blissful serenity from once congested shop areas or highways. As sections of the economy and industries now slowly begin to open, you are definitely not alone in the feeling of nostalgia for the absence of traffic during the lockdown! #4 Thrifty Living! Image credit: Shutterstock One unlikely perk that came with the lockdown was definitely the concept of working from home and it came with a few benefits you will definitely come to miss once we all return to normalcy. As employees are made to work remotely instead of coming to the office, they come to save more portions of not only their time but also their monetary expenses. No more subscriptions to seasonal parkings! It may have been a while since you needed to fill up a full tank of gas or take the forty-minute commute to the office, too. It is safe to say then, that you may as well have experienced a more affordable cost of living! And so from the free residential parking your vehicles have been resting in, or through home-cooked meals you finally have the time and energy to prepare, you probably have been more thrifty with your expenses more than you think! #5 The Time and Space to Learn New Skills Image credit: Canva Whether it's picking up a new language, skill, or hobby, life in lockdown has paved valuable time and space for us to indulge in activities or skills we've only previously wished to do. The space you seek shelter in during this pandemic may as well serve as your safe space! Safe from the virus, and also safe enough for you and your family to explore new things together. This is where you can partake in the onslaught of free online courses, spend time with language apps or take on a new hobby like gardening, baking, knitting, or even skating! Best of all, with access to the Internet and online shopping, there are plenty of virtual stores to purchase your tools and apparatus affordably and in the highest of quality. #6 Social Distancing Image credit: Canva While the practice of social distancing has been a norm before the pandemic to a country like Finland, it may have stuck many of us Malaysians as foreign at the start of its implementation. But if you identify yourself as an introvert, homebody, or simply just not a fan of crowded spaces, you might have found comfort in the social distancing we've had to adhere to in an effort to minimise the spread of the coronavirus! With the 1-metre-apart rule, each store you visit during times of lockdown will have limited the number of customers allowed to enter its premises with an allocated amount of time. Customers at supermarkets and eateries are decently spaced from one another and most impressively, it has been a long time since you were last smothered by large crowds, hasn't it? Talk about a breath of fresh air! #7 Quality time with Your Loved Ones Image credit: Canva With the economy disrupted and the virus at large, most of us found ourselves retreating into the sanctity of our respective homes. Since the children aren't allowed for their routine playground trips or weekend outings, you may have explored various ways to keep the restless children entertained, be it through fun family board games, movie nights, arts and craft sessions, and many others. Essentially, however, as you retreat indoors along with your family, you are bound to treasure the moments spent brainstorming for ways to sustain your family bond amidst limited resources. These are unparalleled quality times indeed! Ultimately, we've all gradually learned how to make the best out of our limited situations! It is in these moments where we might just find a trail of nostalgia when life returns to normal. It's safe to say that after more than a year of succumbing indoors due to the pandemic, we are now embarking on what seems like a promising path of healing since the vaccine rollouts. Although life after the COVID-19 outbreak may never be the same, the silver lining across our sky definitely gleams a new sheen of hope, newfound appreciation, and nostalgia for the unlikely pockets of joy we discovered during our time at home. For more interesting stories and fun recipes, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!

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