When this whole pandemic started at the beginning of March, 2020, my mom had more work than usual, but on the other hand, my dad was forced to take a break from work. This situation affected my family’s health mentally and physically.

Before the pandemic started, my parents always liked going to work. They spent most of their life working from Monday-Saturday and didn’t miss a day.  Once we were officially in quarantine, my mom thought she would be laid off as some of the other workers were, due to COVID-19. She was later informed they had gotten tons of orders for cloth face masks. Instead, she got even more hours! As manager, she was required to leave home even earlier than usual and come back late. These masks were asked to be done as soon as possible, therefore she was even asked to work on Sundays. 

On the other hand, my dad stopped working. His boss informed him that every worker would be laid off for two weeks. Instead it turned into two months. Before the pandemic, he had a stable job, and was able to pay all expenses of the house. Being home made him worry about expenses. He was afraid of his savings being all gone before he was able to go to work. His stress was felt around the house. Along with that, he constantly called his boss asking when he would go back to work. 

 At that time I had asked my dad how he was feeling about being laid off. “I’m worried this might last long, and all my money that I saved will be gone,” said my father. He was also worried about all essentials and food prices increasing. Even when he went back to work two months later, he still had the fear of being laid off again.