Work-life balance? Coronavirus crisis forces parents to juggle work, kids

Tuesday was a disaster at home for Amber Fowler, a teacher at Brooke Elementary School in Austin. Her toddler was screaming while she was on a video conference meeting for work. And even though her husband is around to help, she said it’s still challenging to do work from home when her four kids need attention during a stay-at-home mandate.

Fowler is just one of at least 212 million people around the nation — in 22 states, 64 counties and 16 cities — who were ordered to stay at home this week, according to The New York Times’ database of stay-at-home orders across the country.

“It’s hard to get some quiet time around here,” said Fowler, whose oldest child is in third grade and whose youngest is a toddler.

Many parents are finding it challenging to manage their jobs and out-of-school kids, while lifestyle restrictions and school and work closures are extended.

Fowler said she doesn’t expect schools to open for the rest of the school year.

“Nothing seems to be getting better,” she said. “It seems like things are getting worse. And I know (Austin school district officials) are going to follow everything the city is doing.”

For her job, Fowler has been required to attend video conferences with school staff, check in on her 17 students and their families, and plan to teach in the middle of a pandemic, all while taking care of her own four kids. An additional stress point: Her husband was recently laid off at Pinstack, an upscale bowling venue, because of stay-at-home and social distancing orders.

Fowler said he is searching for jobs — such as essential business jobs at H-E-B, Target, Walmart and warehouse-type jobs — whose workers aren’t affected by shelter-in-place orders.

“It’s kind of frustrating,” Fowler said. “You just don’t know. Luckily, I still have my teacher’s salary. So that’s most of our household income anyway, so the bills are going to be taken care of.”

Like Fowler, Ruth Tovar juggles increasingly demanding aspects of her jobs while taking care of young kids.

Tovar works as a bookkeeper. Many of her clients are construction companies with 15 to 40 workers. Tovar said she receives an overwhelming number of calls, texts and emails from them asking how the stay-home order affects their building projects. During this time, she also has to make sure that her kids are well taken care of.

She said she has a newfound appreciation for those who work with children. She’s had to wear several different hats, such as being a reading specialist and cafeteria worker.

“It really takes a village to raise a child,” Tovar said. A mother of four, she starts working at 5:30 a.m. so she can get a good three hours of work in before the kids are up and about.

She anticipated the Austin school district would extend school closures, especially after Austin Public Health made its recommendation.

“I’m shocked,” Tovar said. “But at the same time, if that’s what it takes so my kids don’t get sick and I don’t carry it to someone I love, then it’s a sacrifice we have to make.”

Parent Mariette Hummel, a spokeswoman for Capital Metro, said she’s been working constantly, even at night, and hasn’t been able to give her 6-year-old son the attention she’d like. She updates the public about such things as how the Austin transit agency is adapting routes due to declines in ridership amid the coronavirus crisis and about an employee who tested positive for COVID-19.

“It’s hard to really dedicate time with him,” Hummel said of her son. “There is stuff he can do by himself, but it’s not the most educational stuff. I can have him play in his room for a little bit but, at some point, he gets bored. I feel like a bad parent a lot of the days that I have to say no so often.”

For her part, Fowler has an advantage most parents don’t: She has an insider’s knowledge of the Austin school district’s online resources and can find materials specific to her children’s grade levels. Fowler has two computers that she allows them to use, depending on the daily schedule. At some point during the day, she takes them out to exercise.

“I think everyone is making up things as we go,” Fowler said.