Being Married To An Essential Worker

You may not know that I am married to an essential worker. My husband is a UPS worker. Usually He is preloading the trucks for the delivery drivers; but he also drives a route if someone calls in or takes a vacation day. So what does this even mean? That means he is handling thousands and thousands of packages a day, every single day! Packages to and from business, to and from residentals, and everything in between.

So I’ve admittedly be very lax about the way he comes home. I really think this is because we live in a rural area, and the kids and I absolutely don’t leave the house unless it’s to go pick up their school lunches twice a week. And honestly I wouldn’t take them to that if it wasn’t required. But in reality we stay home most of the time anyway. I haven’t really cared about if my husband stripped at the door and immediately showered or not, before touching the kids.

After our governor issued executive orders that only essential workers may leave their houses, I got worried! So now I’m on a mission to look around my house for containers for my husband to put in the van for shoes, so that they can be sprayed down with lysol. Another container for his work clothes to go in, if they can’t go directly in the washer as soon as he gets home. (I suck at laundry, sue me!) And I like everyone else on earth need more lysol, bleach, and sanitizers! I actually just sent him to the store for a new container of laundry detergent and laundry sanitizer. I also think I will be filling our guest bathroom with shower supplies, as it is the closest to the door.

Another thing I will be doing is bringing him a new outfit to put on as soon as he gets out of the shower, so he doesn’t have to go upstairs to get clothes from the closet. This is going to be an adjustment for all four of us because he comes in anywhere between just after breakfast and just before lunch most days (unless he runs a route). And the routine currently is walk in the door and the kids go running to hug and kiss their daddy, that they love and missed very much! So this is probably going to make me a bad guy for a little while. But ya know what? I’ll just have to be the bad guy, until we get used to our new normal! I’d much rather be the mean mom, than the mom of a sick kid, or the sick mom isolated from her family, or the wife of a sick essential worker who is in isolation.

In 100% honesty, my husband and I aren’t really thinking we will be able to avoid this. For us the family of an essential worker, it’s not a question of if, but when. And the longer this goes on the scarier this gets. And I should have but these new rules in order as SOON as the first case was confirmed in the U.S., or even the first case in Tennessee, hell, I should have done it when the first confirmed case turned up in my county. But shame on me; I failed to see the seriousness. Shame on me for relying on the urgency of my governor. I see now our state government is much more lax about things than other stated, and trusting that we as Tennesseans will make smart choices. And let me tell you, collectively “we” AIN’T! So shame on us!

Please join me on my mission to do better! Do what you can to flatten the curve! Stay home, stay safe, and wash your DANG hands!