Being in Quaran-Teen with Daina Nadler
In honor of of Mother’s Day 2020, we are highlighting 25 extraordinary Momma’s who inspire our Chasing Blueberries Community!
Meet our mom, Daina!
Daina Nadler, Long Island City, NY
Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Bigelow Trading (the import & wholesale division of C.O. Bigelow)
CB: Who are you in quarantine with?
DN: My husband and son Ashur, 14 years old.
CB: What is your quarantine story? DN: We’ve been hunkered down with a Quaran-teen so...admittedly I’m in a much different situation than someone with toddlers. Had this happened when he was 3, one of us would not have made it out alive.
Yesterday my child emerged from his room to get food. That’s it. That’s my story.
I’m still working full time - more than full time, to be honest...it feels like we’ve been busier than ever....and the boundaries are definitely more challenging to maintain when you’re working from home. (Despite the challenges we face with so many of our retailer partners closing or canceling POs, we consider ourselves incredibly lucky that people still need to brush their teeth and shower and wash their hands!)
Been managing our team of 5....figuring out the best way to adapt and pivot people’s roles to adjust to a new way of doing business (especially challenging in the beauty retail sector) so nobody loses their job or has to be temporarily furloughed.
Baking on weekends to clear my head of all the Zoom calls and spreadsheets.
The other day, I asked if this was the time for us to learn TikTok together and literally without looking up, looking my way or skipping a beat, he calmly said “get out of my room.”
I was doing a segment with a friend on her IG live show and I saw comments about the kid in the background...and there he was: my social media-averse teen sitting casually on the couch behind me, legs crossed, saying nothing, reading a book...in a full-face gas mask like he was the third member of Daft Punk.
CB: What are 3 tips you would give to other Moms to help them during this time?
DN:
1: Don’t let the pressure of “use this time to create your best...Life! Body! Closet!” make you feel like you’re “squandering this opportunity to reset”. That is so not realistic for most of us. I mean, I went into this thinking “I’m going to use the time I had spent commuting to exercise every day and learn Italian!” They say the path to hell is paved with good intentions and let me tell you, I’ve paved a superhighway in the last 45 days.
2: There is no way the average human can be great at everything all at once (and especially not during a pandemic and quarantine). I don’t know anyone that can give 100% to being a full-time professional, teacher, housekeeper, chef, cruise director...all at once. And if you can, brava...you’re a better woman than I.
The pie is only so big. Give yourself a little grace to be “the world’s okayest” right now.
3: Self-care is important. Be kind to yourself and give yourself permission to do a little something that makes you feel good every day. Maybe it’s locking yourself in the bathroom for a few extra minutes to try a new sheet mask. Or soak in the bath after the kids go to bed. Or take a break from emails in the middle of the day to bake something, because you NEED A CUPCAKE RIGHT NOW. There’s a reason you’re supposed to put on your own oxygen mask first in the event of an emergency. And sometimes that mask comes in the form of a chocolate chip cookie, dammit.