A few days ago, I was once again going through the motions of the day: get up, have coffee with my husband before he leaves for work, get settled into working from home, and then help the kids with distance learning. The schedule seems to work well, but for some reason, it now feels like it is sucking the life out of me. I would compare it to Wesley on “The Princess Bride” when he is told, “I’ve just sucked one year of your life away.”

Distance learning is wearing on me. One of my children was assigned a major project that we worked on until almost 9:00 every night last week. In the midst of long hours of distance learning and the kids just not understanding their assignments, the thought hit me, “I miss laughing.”

The last few weeks have been long and difficult. The routine that seemed to work for our family, now felt mundane. Some teachers began lessening the distance-learning load, but others seemed to think the kids had finally gotten the hang of it so they began assigning more. I can’t help thinking that I would much rather be on vacation, or at the beach, or just walking aimlessly around a mall.

However, as I worked from home in the morning, helped with distance learning in the afternoon, made dinner, and then helped with a project all evening, I realized that as much as I tell people the importance of having fun, I haven’t been following my own advice.

There are so many cute ideas of activities for fun at home, like making an indoor fort or having a scavenger hunt. The problem is, that I only have one child who would enjoy these things. The other ones would probably secretly enjoy it, but as middle schoolers, anything Mom suggests seems to be a stupid, horrible, awful idea…so most of time, the energy it would take to try to convince the kids that it would be fun, just doesn’t seem worth it.

I still haven’t really figured out what middle schoolers enjoy. I am convinced that what they enjoy is aggrevating their parents, acting too cool for anything parents suggest, and finding friends who are just as annoying as them. Don’t get me wrong, I love my middle schoolers. Nothing gives me more joy then trying to act cool in an effort to annoy them. It gives me great satisfaction to hear them say, “Mom, just don’t.” I find their quirky way of trying to figure out how to transition from childhood into adulthood endearing.

However, when you are trying to find ways to make quarantine more enjoyable, the words, “Mom, just don’t” put a damper on efforts to lighten the mood. Small children are demanding, but entertaining them is so much easier. They would be ecstatic about a scavenger hunt or a creative play fort. I could tell them to make me “dinner” with their play food or to make something with play dough, and it would keep them entertained for hours. However, that is not where we are in life.

Instead, I have middle schoolers and a high schooler with challenging distance learning classes, and an elementary school student who seems to have more work than any of them. All of this has created an atmosphere where fun seems to have disappeared. Thus creating the present state of affairs, where laughter is a distant memory.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when we laugh, but the joy and light-heartedness that we previously enjoyed seems to have vanished. In its place are long hours of distance learning, working home, and no social interaction.

They say they are lifting stay-at-home orders and curfews, but what does that even mean? Many people are still worried about spending time with others and most places of entertainment are still closed. I long to see my friends, to experience some type of normalcy, but it feels so unachievable, and last week the epiphany that laughter seems lost was a sad reminder that I need to find small ways to bring laughter back into our home. So…

For now, I think I am going to brainstorm and make a list of 20 ways to effectively annoy middle schoolers.