Cooped up Clark County clans cope amid coronavirus

In the recent pre-pandemic past, the Flach family of Vancouver was always on the go.

Stephen’s job as an e-commerce field manager took him on the road for eight to 10 days a month. Courtney spent her days teaching middle school. During evenings, the couple shuttled Robert, 15, to Boy Scouts and robotics club and Lauren, 11, to dance classes.

Now they don’t go much of anywhere. Like families across Clark County, they are adjusting to remote work and online school under a stay-at-home order intended to curb the spread of COVID-19. These families say they’re grateful for their health and their jobs, but spending 24/7 cooped up at home together inevitably causes strain.

“I wouldn’t say this experience has been easy,” Stephen Flach said. “We had to make some adjustments.”

Busyness interrupted

The threat of a new, potentially life-threatening virus began to emerge in January, but it wasn’t until Gov. Jay Inslee canceled school statewide in mid-March that Clark County families realized how much their lives would change. At first, schools were only going to be closed until the end of April. Then came the announcement that they wouldn’t reopen this school year. Inslee announced closure of all but essential businesses and the stay-at-home order March 23.

That caused a seismic shift for the Dixson family of Washougal. Before the shutdown, Jenny Dixson drove her children, 9-year-old Blake and 11-year-old Avery, to practices at Salmon Creek Soccer Club several times a week. The kids also played basketball. Jenny and her husband, Brent, a chiropractor, were planning their summer around trips to the kids’ sports tournaments in Seattle and San Diego.

“That all went away,” Dixson said. “Our lives changed.”

Variations of their experience play out in households across Clark County.

In normal times, Julie Christian refers to herself as an unpaid Uber driver.

“After 3 every afternoon, I’m driving someone somewhere. There are very few nights when all of us are home,” she said.

It was the first week after what would have been spring break when the new reality smacked Christian and her family.

“I was in tears a few times, trying to get my stuff done and help with the kids. There was so much uncertainty,” said Christian, an English teacher at Columbia River High School.

Now she juggles her own teaching obligations, as well as supervising her sons, Evan, 13, and Connor, 11, while her husband, Aaron, also works from their home in Felida.

Home becoming both school and office also has been tricky for social workers Spring and Nate Dowse and their 10-year-old son, Kennedy. They jockey for space for their respective online Zoom meetings in their 1,100-square-foot house in Vancouver.

Kennedy played on soccer and basketball teams before the pandemic. Exhausting himself through sports helped to reduce tics caused by his Tourette syndrome, his mother said, and losing that outlet poses another challenge for the family.

Finding strategies

The Dowses and other families said physical activity has been a key to coping, one of several strategies that steady them during this time of uncertainty.

When Nate Dowse takes a break from work, he spends that 15 minutes with Kennedy, wrestling or running around outside.

The Dixson family also lets off steam outside.

“We take bike rides and walk on the dike in Washougal. We run every day. It’s something to look forward to,” Jenny Dixson said.

Christian said she and her husband have been taking daily walks together.

“It’s been sort of nice to get out of the house,” she said. “We’re getting some fresh air and exercise.”

Even though families aren’t going anywhere, coordinating schedules remains important, something Christian realized after a tough week.

“My husband is working at home as well. He and I had a meeting. We blocked off parenting duty times so we would have time to work and not try to do our own jobs and home-school at the same time,” Christian said.

Her sons continue their after-school classes at Riverside Performing Arts through the online meeting tool Zoom, which is something else to track. So she made a calendar — on paper, where everyone can see it — and the family writes down school Zoom meetings, work calls and who is on parenting duty.

“I couldn’t keep all the meetings straight,” Christian said.

Courtney Flach saw opportunity in creating a routine for the family.

“We have time to sleep in. There’s no need to get up at 6 a.m.,” she said. “I made a reasonable schedule, knowing that our day was going to look very different, but we still have tasks to achieve.”

Courtney Flach walks every morning, and Stephen works out before the kids wake up and the work day starts. The family takes a break for lunch together from noon to 1 p.m. Everyone shuts off their devices by 9 p.m. and lights go out by 10.

Silver linings

Family togetherness turns out to be both a challenge and a benefit.

“The slower pace has actually been a little nice, as frustrating as some of it is,” Christian said. The family has had fun playing Zilch, a dice game, and singing karaoke.

“The silver lining in this is that it’s bringing our family closer together,” Stephen Flach said. “We never ate this many meals together. In the evenings we will play games, do puzzles, watch movies, or go on bike rides together.”

“We’re very blessed,” Courtney Flach agreed. “I’m not going to say that it’s easy. We constantly talk about that we’re a family, and together as a family, we’ll figure this out.”