{"id":15661,"date":"2020-04-23T10:42:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T15:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=15661"},"modified":"2020-04-23T11:17:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:17:01","slug":"boredom-is-not-a-hardship-its-just-insensitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/boredom-is-not-a-hardship-its-just-insensitive\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus boredom is not a hardship, and your complaining is wildly insensitive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, about a month ago, Gal Gadot teamed up with a bunch of celebrities to create a cover of Imagine<\/a>, which she posted to her Instagram with a comment about how we\u2019re \u201call in this together.\u201d The video was met with vitriol, largely because the saccharine display of \u201csupport\u201d only served to highlight an inconvenient truth: we are not, in fact, all in this together.<\/p>\n

USA Today puts it most succinctly: \u201cThere really are two Americas here: Those still getting a paycheck from government, corporations or universities, and those who are unemployed, or seeing their small businesses suffer due to shutdowns<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted, I think there\u2019s some nuance to this statement. Is it fair to say someone who is single but unemployed really has it worse than a parent struggling to make remote work and remote schooling compatible? No, not really. A lot of the US is being hit with very real struggles, whether financial<\/a> or not, and it\u2019s not productive to compare hardships.<\/p>\n

But it is still safe to say that the divide that has always been under the surface has become more apparent during this pandemic. We\u2019ve seen it in how, for a while, it was nearly impossible for people to get tested unless they were rich<\/a>. We\u2019ve seen it in the social media posts<\/a> of celebrities who complain about being cooped up (in their luxurious mansions). Hell, we even see it in well-meaning, but tone-deaf, suggestions about what to do if we\u2019re \u201cbored,\u201d like this article<\/a> that…uh…recommends doing more work \u201cwithout office distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know, because your coworker coffee chats were way more distracting than, say, a cooped up three year old. <\/p>\n

The point is, we\u2019re really not in this together. And I say this as one of the lucky ones, who has a job that lets me work remotely, and doesn\u2019t have any kids I have to worry about remote schooling for the foreseeable future. Which puts me in a perfect position to tell everyone in situations similar (and better) to mine: y\u2019all, we gotta be more mindful of other people.<\/p>\n

Stop judging parents! Not only is it unprecedented, trying to make life work while handling online schooling that\u2019s basically been created on a hope and a prayer (shout out to the teachers, they\u2019re trying to work miracles) did you know the World Health Organization<\/a> has released guidelines for helping kids deal with the stress that comes from this pandemic? Parents don\u2019t need 10 cutesy craft ideas, they need your patience. And a nap, probably.<\/p>\n

Stop complaining about boredom! No offense, but boredom is what comes after all of your other needs have been met. It\u2019s annoying, sure, and disheartening, but you\u2019re not having to worry about how to pay rent, or taking on the exhausting tasks that many essential workers have to face.<\/p>\n

Find ways to help! This can, ironically, be a solution to your boredom problem. As social distancing and isolation continues and the divide grows between those of us who have enough and those who don\u2019t, look for ways you can help your community. Donate to local organizations, buy gift cards or deliveries from local restaurants, deliver care packages to struggling neighbors…the list goes on. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re not all in this together, so let\u2019s stop pretending otherwise and do something about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(EDITORIAL) Staying at home for long periods of time can be hard, kids and animals need attention, hoping I get to eat food today, work, but worst of all – boredom!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337722,"featured_media":15662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[1927,253,1234],"class_list":["post-15661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-covid-19","tag-editorial","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/joshua-rawson-harris-md7cCWYVq9U-unsplash-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337722"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15667,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15661\/revisions\/15667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}