The world doesn’t look like it did last year. Many of us are in lockdown because of COVID-19. We aren’t able to see our friends and family face to face as often as we used it; maybe we still haven’t seen them. For some, the pandemic has proved to be a minor inconvenience while for others the lockdown has caused other issues to surface.
Be it a death in the family, adjusting to working from home, adjusting to the kids working from home, or just the fact that the family is together All. Of. The. Time. It’s been stressful for all of us, but as Tara Mandarano says in her recent interview with CBC:
“Even as the world was shutting down around me, my marriage was continuing to as well. I don’t blame the pandemic. I think maybe it would have happened anyway, but I think COVID sped up the process and it sort of put us in a pressure cooker that maybe we wouldn’t have been in without the pandemic.”
For some couples considering separation, this pandemic-induced lockdown has only exacerbated the issues at home. It’s no one’s fault, again we’re all feeling the effects of this. With that being said, it is on you and your partner to ensure you are doing the most important thing you can be doing right now for your marriage, or even separation: communicate. Communication is the sole vessel that will be able to shed some light on your current situation.
Is your partner actually mad at you? Maybe they are just experiencing significant COVID-19 related stressors too? It really is a pressure cooker, but the key to the off switch is communication.
Utilizing a service like family mediation at this time may help to shed some light on what is really going on at home. The great thing about it is it can be done virtually! You and your partner don’t even need to be in the same room. Having a healthy discussion about what is going on may be just the thing that helps everyone involved feel just a little bit better about everything going on.
For more on how some couples are reacting to the pressure cooker of COVID-19 lockdown check out this CBC article by Perlita Stroh:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/covid-19-panemic-divorce-rates-1.5795625
Every situation is different. This blog post is not intended to provide legal advice. Contact us for further help on your unique parental dispute.
Artwork by Megan Hewson. View her work at https://www.instagram.com/megheworiginals/