WILMINGTON — Positive sources — whether they’re from family or faith — are providing inspiration and motivation for parents during this time.
Angelica McKee Branham, who works as a tech at Kratzer’s Hometown Pharmacy, has been fortunate enough to access multiple positive outlets.
According to Angelica, she and her husband Anthony are fortunate that their two-year-old daughter, Genesis, is too young to understand the COVID-19 pandemic or to be scared by it.
She does miss going to the park. But they’ve managed combat that boredom with a variety of activities.
“We have gone fishing, played outside with chalk, gone on walks on the bike trails, and she now has about seven sunflowers she planted with my sister Alexis,” said Angelica. “All of this, on top of her helping with the pets in our home and setting time apart for her shapes, numbers, alphabet, and colors which she learns using puzzles and flashcards ordered from Amazon.”
But Genesis’ favorite activity right now is having both real and pretend tea parties with everyone in the house.
The best part of this time has been having the family together more often, said Angelica.
“My husband is working from home, but before this, we only saw each other during the week a couple of hours each day because our shifts are so different. Weekends used to be our only real-time for the three of us to be together,” she said.
Another source of relief for her and the family been the ability to still attend church at Bible Missionary Baptist Church — in a way or another.
“Dr. Kurtis Lee Summerville has been making a great effort to make sure people are able to still hear a word from God through Facebook Live, YouTube, and having church outside so that people can stay in their cars,” said Angelica.
As stressful as these times can be, Angelica’s message for parents — this advice goes for non-pandemic times, too — is that positives need to be our focus.
“When I come home to my little girl it is a good day. Those are the kind of things we need to focus on during these times, the positive,” she said. “Not what we are missing out on or going without but what we still have, what we are still blessed with.”
