A full brake in middle of the rush hour
Quarantine life in Norway

It’s been over 4 weeks already of quarantine life in Norway and it’s weird how you just adapt to new challenges. About four weeks ago, as the number of infections suddenly began to rise, Norway was locked down from one day to the next. All felt so surreal and uncertain.

At first: overwhelmed and worried

The first days, we felt overwhelmed. How are you supposed to manage two jobs in home office and on top of that, entertain a toddler who is home from kindergarten? I remember everything felt so uncertain and all the news felt like fiction. I couldn’t believe this was our new reality.

Home office

This point works really well. For me, working in a digital marketing agency, it`s really no problem at all to work from home. All I need is my laptop and phone. The challenge though is having a toddler in addition and keeping the focus. 😉

Kindergarten at home

The more challenging part is having an 18 months old toddler at home who is used to be in kindergarten and playing with other kids most of the day. Especially the first days our kid seemed to wonder what happened to our routines and why she suddenly no longer went to kindergarten every day. She is at this age where she has so much energy and such a drive to explore the world and

A sudden break in the rush hour

All of sudden life was set at a pause. Literally, from one day to the next, we were forced by the Norwegian Government to take our kids out of school and kindergarten and work remotely. All these extreme changes felt impossible to solve the first days, but quickly I started to value all the time we now get to spend with our families.

Finally I have the feeling of having enough time and being in the moment. There is no need to stress around, hurry to the crowded subway.

There is also more time to reflect about life and what we really want. Life can be so hectic when you just follow everything that you think you have to do. So, what do we want to learn from this crisis?

Missing all kinds of social settings

As much as we have adapted to the new “normal”, I really miss our former social life. I miss visiting our families or meeting up with friends and not be worried to become ill or infect others. I have really come to value my normal social life and all the possibilities which I haven’t really reflected much over before the crisis.

What do we learn from it?

I have decided to be more grateful for all the privileges we have and that we maybe take for granted. Not everything we had in the “life before” was really that much needed, for instance all the shopping centers. Who needs to shop that much? The one thing I really miss, is easily getting together with friends and family. That’s the thing that matters to me most to me. Also, health always comes first and we have a functional government that can handle a crisis.