How COVID-19 turned me into a stay-at-home dad (well, sort of)

This is a weekly series I’m publishing during COVID-19

2020 has been a wild year. I started the year as a Corporate Executive within a Fortune 500 firm and I’ll end the year as a stay-at-home dad.

To understand the full scope, let me rewind a bit and give you a bit of context. In January, I got a new boss after my prior boss retired after 30+ years in the industry (what amazing timing he has!).

In February, I was working on a 5-year strategic growth plan for our company, devising numerous measures to extract more growth out of the business while also cutting costs; in effect, making our shareholders more happy. Our industry was riding high and the economy was stronger than ever.

In March, my kids left for Spring Break and never returned. They finished the school year virtually. I recall picking them up on Friday, March 13th (perhaps an ominous day?) and carrying 40+ pounds of books and technology devices. We are in a large, urban school district and they were taking COVID seriously…thus a warning sign of things to come.

Then April happened. At work, our business was getting hit hard from COVID. At one of our weekly check-ins, my boss called me and said, “Sorry Jimmy, your position is being eliminated and you are going to be part of our cost-cutting program.”

Since May, I’ve basically been retired. For at least a decade, my dream has been to…