The stress was a bitch. I work full-time in a grocery store and had a wife and newborn isolated at home every day. Not only was I constantly exposed to the public, but every little symptom or perceived symptom (lot of psychological/false positive over two years) would get the anxiety brewing inside of me, fearing I would eventually bring it home and potentially lose one of them. Every wet cough out of that kid would keep me up at night. This got a little better as the pandemic went on, and I wouldn’t say I was in a constant state of paranoia, but fuck me if it wasn’t a slice of Mr. Bones’ Wild Ride.

You could argue my wife has it worse, though, being isolated at home with a baby for so long with little to do over the long Canadian winters. It definitely wasn’t how she imagined mat leave would be.