I was a #ClimateChangeRefugee for the 2020 January and February. Fortunately, we escaped from fires in Australia. The good thing was we were away from the smoke in Australia, so my kids' lungs are clean at the moment. Inhaling PM2 and PM2.5 would have been detrimental to their health as the particles travelling into the bloodstream and marrow in bones. Unfortunately, I lost my job due to being away unexpectedly, but that was expected; I gave that freedom to my boss on my first communication with them.
Now we have Covid-19, and it is spreading fast. Leaving aside its rate of casualties and spreading ability against other pandemics, I wouldn't put my family at risk and will take every precaution I can.
Australian society's resiliency is very low against these kinds of crisis. I have seen and experienced this a lot. We are not like Cuba or Eastern European countries that have seen the worst. This fragility is very concerning, as we have seen on the incredible #ToiletPaperEmergency. This shows that Australians basically don't know what to do in case of a crisis.
This fragility of Australian society is really worrying me as the new generation is growing up even less resilient. The new generation is not experiencing any valuable lessons to learn resiliency.
Learning resiliency is not easy. You have to either experience the worst of the worst or a wise teacher teach you this. I guess the profession of Life Coaching born out of this necessity. In Asian and Middle Eastern countries, the life coaches are your parents, boss, teachers, friends, and neighbours. You learn life by interacting with wiser and experienced people you respect. Respect to elders and teachers imprinted into our brains by our parents. In Western countries, relationships are reduced to nothing. You have to be politically correct and try not to offend anyone; you can't really teach life to your neighbour's kids. You would be labelled as the angry neighbour on the street or the bad father in the family.
In conclusion, yes, I want the best for my kids, but at the same time, I want them to learn resiliency. But, unfortunately, I don't know how to teach them resiliency as I don't have the support of the robust community I was once lived in. There are no grannies and grandpas, uncles or aunts around us. No wise teachers or elderly neighbours that we communicate openly.
One thing I can do is to prepare them for what is coming. Gardening and house chores are one thing I can teach. But how am I going to make these things interesting? At the moment, homework and sports are taking most of their time. I think I have to make time and get them into the garden.
I hope my kids' life turn out happy and resilient; I will try my best.