Iso life with the Cuminao Family

Lisa and her family are friends from my sons primary school. They are a lovely family.

Here is their story.

1. How did you feel when they started to close things down and create restrictions?

At first I felt a little panicked, trips to the shops for supplies were chaotic. I was worried about having enough milk for my toddler and also having a steady supply of fresh food for our family.

My anxiety was soon eased as It became obvious that essential stores would remain open so that we could buy things like milk and fruit, meat etc. Although some days I had to go searching, but we didn’t go without anything that we really needed.

My son was sad when his soccer stopped, he didn’t really know what to do at first.

He started a training program at home and kept up practicing his skills and stayed connected that way.

I was constantly worried for my husband who works in the building industry, life continued as normal for him, so there was a constant risk that he may become sick.

My anxiety didn’t really ease at all, but I just accepted what was and carried on.

2. What things did you start to do once your iso life began that was different to your normal life.

I am very much a homebody anyway so to be honest, ISO was not really any different for me. I actually spent a lot more time outside in the sunshine though, I’m normally rushing around inside doing laundry and keeping on top of the house work, I don’t take a lot of Time to just sit outside for hours on end. It was really nice to just relax and enjoy the quiet.

3. What was your favourite thing about iso life.

Our life is generally day to day crazy and on the go. It was just so nice, all being home as a family and not having to do anything or go anywhere. We normally feel obliged to attend events sometimes that we don’t really want to, and we hate saying no and disappointing anyone.

It was nice just to be together and knowing no one is going to be knocking on the door for a surprise visit, funny as that sounds - normally I would feel selfish thinking that way.  

4. What was your least favourite thing about iso life

Not being able to hop in the car and just take off, we enjoy sightseeing trips and Sunday drives to anywhere.. not being able to do that was tough, also not being able to go to the beach or camping etc was really hard.

My son not being able to hang out with his friends and connect with people

His own age,  I know was tough on him.

5. What do you hope changes for the better when we go back to semi normal life.

I hope we can stop and appreciate the little things more. We don’t need a lot to be happy.

We don’t always have to say yes to everything.

I hope people in general are more considerate of each other and make more social connections.

6. Who did you miss hugging the most.

I’m not the greatest hugger, but I did miss being able to visit with my friends or my parents who live interstate, I haven’t seen them now for almost 7 months.

Our closest family are 45 minutes away, we definitely did miss spending time with them also.

If you could write a little blurb about your family and dynamics of daily life also.

We are a family of 4, mum, dad, 12y/o boy and 20 month old girl. You would generally find us at the soccer field, the beach or camping in the bush.

We live a relatively fuss free life, hubby loves to cook, I’m an arts and crafts nut, my son loves to kick the ball and my daughter loves to explore everything.

ISO was challenging at first, home schooling was tough for the first week or so, but once we stopped stressing about everything needing to be 100% and just did as best as we could, everything fell into place.

I felt more connected to my family during this time because my mind was focused 100% on just us. That has been a huge takeaway for me, especially with my pending return to the workplace in a couple of months after extended maternity leave.

I hope that employers (mine especially) consider permanently allowing staff to work from

Home into the future, it Definitely helps with work life balance.

I definitely do think more on a daily basis about what really matters and what is really important.

I think we have been one of the lucky families as ISO hasn’t really forced any major change on our lives, but it definitely has brought us closer together.