Coronavirus: familes dread a return to life as they knew it

‘I don’t want things to go back to normal.’ How many times have you secretly thought that over the past week or so? White collar workers everywhere are seeing the waste of time in modern life.

Liz Campbell watches her eight-year-old twins Campbell and Evie Turner, with their neighbourhood friends, playing outside her home in Nundah, Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“I don’t want things to go back to normal.” How many times have you secretly thought that to yourself over the past week or so?

Restrictions are being lifted. People are drifting back to the ­office. And it is truly marvellous how we kept the rate of infection in Australia low.

But who will not miss a little of life in the slow lane?

“The return to normal is going to be challenging for people,” says Ian Hickie, co-director, health and policy at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre.

“We need to be cautious in saying that, because if you’ve lost your livelihood, if you’re worried about your future, you won’t feel this way.

“But there is another group, white-collar workers mainly, who waste a lot of time commuting, who run out of hours in the day, who have enjoyed this time.

“They’re working from home, and they’re more productive, because the office is noisy, it’s sociable, you’re constantly distracted.

“In the beginning, it was disorienting. There was fear. But we have adapted. And many people will now be thinking, wait, I didn’t enjoy the way I was living before. I like this new normal.”

That is certainly true for primary school teacher Liz Campbell, who is raising eight-year-old twins. She has been working from home for five weeks, and the children have been home, too.

“My life, normally, is frantic,” she says. “It’s saying ‘hop in the bath, do your homework’, or in the morning, it was trying to get two eight-year-olds out the door, and do the lunches, and ‘is everything in your bag? And do you have your forms and is it music today and who is dropping you off?’

“Now that whole concept of the neighbourhood kids playing ­together has returned. I’ve loved looking out the window, seeing kids in the driveway. The kids do some school work, they go out and ride their scooters. The street is safe, and other kids join them.

“I have managed my responsibilities at school, and I am a calmer mum. I know I have to go back to face-to-face teaching, but I feel, for the first time, that my children know what my childhood was like.”

Deakin University’s Elizabeth Westrupp launched a study to measure the emotional and mental health impact of the pandemic on Australian families.

She agrees that many have ­enjoyed the shutdown but cautions that it “depends very much on how you have been impacted”.

“If you have a safe home … if you have not lost your job, there has been time to reflect on how busy and complex our lives have ­become,” she says.

“Cutting down on travel time to work, that’s a huge difference. We are focused on things that matter. We have fewer interruptions. But we are social beings and our healthiest place is when we have strong connections with others. So I think we will go back to being more social and connected. But we might always remember this time.”

Liz Campbell with her children. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Tashi Winter works in recruitment in Newcastle. She has two children: nine-year-old Mia and seven-year-old Hunter.

“My job is normally very people-facing — visiting workplaces and meeting people,” she says.

She has been working at home for about seven weeks, getting in the car only when necessary. She set up a workspace in her bedroom. The kids took over a table in the lounge room.

‘To be honest, the biggest challenge I faced was my modem died,” she says. ‘But I hot-spotted off my phone, and it was fine.

“I’m lucky that my kids are pretty motivated and bright. They have their lesson plan, and I can check in every hour or so, and when I clock off work for the day, after 5pm, I can review what they’ve done. There’s no commute, I just step out of my bedroom and I’m there.”

And she has loved it.

“I normally go through a tank of fuel a week, running around for work, dropping off kids,” she says.

“My daughter has speech therapy plus swimming lessons and dancing … we’ve stopped that, I’ve never seen her so calm, so relaxed. And I’ve achieved more. The mental energy I used to use, thinking how am I going to be in 30 places at once.

“I am definitely aiming to have a different schedule, and a different mix, when this ends.”

The modern office, and the 9-5 work week, was designed 100 years ago, for a one-income family.

The juggle — two parents working in an office environment — hasn’t really worked for anyone.

The flexibility women have been craving for years is finally here, and men have found happiness, not being stuck in the office all day. They’re seeing their kids for more than half an hour ­between coming home and them going to bed.

It turns out the circle of people we truly care about is also very small: how many of you have been OK with seeing less of your friends?

A KPMG report, Ways of Working, released in April, says working remotely “has quickly become the new norm. Work will be regarded as a thing you do, rather than a place you go.”

We will need larger homes, a complete flip from the apartment living we were just five minutes ago being encouraged to embrace.

Your manager will have to pay more attention to your mental health. Hierarchies will collapse (if you get the corner office and there’s nobody there to see it, do you really have it?)

More people will move to ­regional Australia, because why live in a city if you didn’t have to go to the office?

There are certainly things we want from the old world: the freedom to see our parents and grandparents; farewelling our loved ones at funerals, maybe even a trip to the gym.

But one post on Reddit last week — “I don’t want to go back to normal life after quarantine is ­lifted” — got more than 8000 likes in an hour.

The introverted are thriving.

Justine Braddock lives in Gladstone, a coastal town focused around commercial shipping, about 120km south of Rockhampton. Her husband is a train driver. There is no option for him to work from home.

But she works in maritime ­safety, and she’s been able to set up a home office, with one child at kindy and one at school.

“I don’t feel like I’m ready to go back to what we called normal,” she says.

“I have so much more flexibility. You can get up straight from your desk and hang a load of washing out.

“I’ve been more available for my children.”

She is working hard, but saves time commuting, and “I still wash my hair,” she jokes, “but I haven’t done my make-up for about six weeks.

“I don’t feel like I’m ready to go back to what we called normal. I like this new-normal. I think it’s been good for us, to reimagine how life could be.”