Coronavirus: stuck at home won’t be walk in park but there will be upsides

As NSW prepares to shut down non-essential services, many people took the chance to get together and enjoy themselves.

Scott Sanders with daughters Zara, Evie and Adele and Charlie the dog enjoying Centennial Park on Sunday ahead of a statewide shut down. Picture: Jane Dempster

The world is in the grip of a pandemic but you wouldn’t have known it at Sydney’s Centennial Park on Sunday as thousands flocked to enjoy the sun before the state’s shut down.

The Sanders family wasn’t going to let potential risks stop it from embarking on what may have been its last public outing for a long while.

“This seems like a safe space with lots of room, at least we’re not in a closed, confined space,” said Scott Sanders. “We’ve been careful — we watched a video with the kids this week about washing your hands and social distancing so we’ve been prepped for that. ”

But even in the open Centennial Park people were still gathering closely as they lined up for coffee and ice cream.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Sunday a statewide shut down of non-essential services would be rolled out over coming days. Schools are expected to be closed from Tuesday.

Evie Sanders, 14, from Canterbury Girls High School, said the school was ready to enact online Google classroom lessons.

“They’re telling us we’re still going to get school work if the school is closed,” she said.

She said her friends had started making lockdown packages full of craft and cooking supplies to ensure they have plenty to do while stuck at home.

“I’ve got my own list of things I want to do if we do eventually go into lockdown, I’m going to try a bunch of mug-cake recipes,” she said. “I think because of technology we’ll all still be connected so it won’t be as isolating as it sounds.”

Mr Sanders, 41, who runs a not-for-profit church organisation, said his team was planning on ­reducing its salaries over coming months to “ride out” the uncertainty, and his family was already timetabling its home life.

“I think the kids are going to miss school, it is going to be difficult at home to keep the kids occupied, trying to keep them off screens. We’ve got a backyard so that’s helpful,” Mr Sanders said.

“My wife’s a teacher so we’ve already started to plan our days. Treat it like a routine, get dressed, have certain times of the day where we work by ourselves or as a group. We bought board games last week so those are ready to go and we’ve made sure our Netflix, Stan and Disney Plus subscriptions are locked in.”

He said, while the future was uncertain, he believed the community may emerge stronger following the pandemic.

“Hopefully this will only affect us for a time and in some ways we live in a generation that’s been pretty safe,” Mr Sanders said.

“My parents were born just after the war and their parents went through terrible stuff.

“So we’ve been pretty lucky, particularly in Australia — we miss out on a lot of humanitarian disasters.

“Honestly, I think this is a real opportunity for communities to come together and support each other in ways we never thought possible.”