I read a great post last week on LinkedIn. Reading others’ posts is one of the things that makes me feel at least somewhat connected to our industry right now outside of my daily video meetings. This post was written by someone in another city who I don’t know and described a day in the life of a household with two working parents of young children (4-10 years old) who are at home, distance learning, with neither out of home nor in-home childcare. I enjoy telling people in our position about it because it made me feel better about how we’re doing, and that we’re not unique. I thought for this column that I could do something similar in our community and describe life in our household for the past two months. For those in a different stage of life, you may find it surprising, and for those whose situations are similar to ours, it may be reassuring.

On a typical weekday in our household, everybody gets up and gets ready for school and work as though we’re going somewhere (it’s not a good start if people aren’t dressed before going downstairs for breakfast.) Parent 1 hops on the first Zoom meeting of the day at 9am, parent 2 gets ready to put child 1 on her Zoom meeting at 9.30am (exponentially harder for each additional child,) and gets child 2 doing something school related ahead of the first parenting switch of the day. At 10am, parent 1’s Zoom call ends, one child is still at virtual school, and at 10.15am parent 2 (who happens to be a college professor) begins virtual class 1 of the day at 10.15am. At 11.30am, virtual class 1 ends, switch 2 occurs, and parent 1 gets on Zoom meeting 2 of the day. Parent 1 gives the kids and herself lunch. At 12.30pm, switch 3 occurs, parent 1 eats something, child 2 has her Zoom meeting, and parent 2 teaches virtual college class 2. At 2pm, parent 1 (me) has a virtual ULI product council meeting in place of the spring meeting (major bummer to have canceled, also a specific example from last week.) At 3pm parent 2 gets on a Zoom call concurrently with parent 1 at which time the tablets are turned on, i.e. the kids are alone. At 4.30pm both parents are done for the day, and everyone takes a walk ahead of dinner prep, homework, baths and bedtime. At 9.30pm both parents sit back to back in the home office and work until 1am.

Now granted, not every day is this crammed, but many are. Our normal lives with the kids at school, and with grandparent help, seem distant. What’s amazing though is how close our kids have become, and how much we’re able to get done in less time. That made me wonder, what do I do with all of the other time when I’m normally at the office? The answer is very important: the many intangible interactions such as staff support, collaboration time, networking lunches (how much would I love a meal prepared by others!), industry events, mental breaks outside, and randomly seeing other people both in the office and walking the streets outside. Basically, all of the things that humans crave – time with others in person.

On the business front, we continue to hold weekly meetings with our divisions, with our executive team, with our COVID committee, etc. but it’s not the same, and it’s exhausting. It’s also difficult to focus so much time on cost savings measures rather than growth opportunities, and to know that so many people are struggling so much more than me. In the midst of everyday challenges, the most important reminder for my family each day is how fortunate we are. We have support from our schools, from our colleagues, our networks, our extended families, and each other. And while our business units are severely impacted (hotels, retail!), we’re well diversified, and we share the burden across the company with the goal to bring everyone along and come out stronger on the other side. Those who can take a larger burden are doing so.

So to all of you at home, I hope to see you in person soon and stay positive! I know that getting up every day and continuing to do our work that we love makes me grateful to work in this great industry and region. My best wishes to you and your families!

Evan Weisman
President, Donohoe Development Company
Chair, ULI Washington UrbanPlan
Member, ULI Washington NEXT
Member, ULI Urban Revitalization Product Council

In ULI Washington’s new Leadership Insights column, ULI Washington will regularly feature member leader’s thoughts and insights as we adjust personally and professional to a “new normal.”