OPINION: Is the pandemic affecting our relationships?

Relationships are hard. And they’re getting even harder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic, COVID-19, has turned our lives upside down. It has changed our way of living, our usual hobbies, and especially our relationships. The pandemic has changed our relationships with people from our; workplace, family, community, and home.

The circumstances have changed, and this has brought us closer to the people at home, but has isolated ourselves from our friends and family whom we don't live with.

Have relationships with the people we live with been affected? Yes. The answer is yes.

The social-distancing terms and obligations have obliged us to stay at home, with our family. Therefore, some of us have built a stronger relationship with our family, those who we live with. We see the people we live with constantly, we share meals, we find ourselves sharing experiences together. We are spending more time with them, bringing us closer to our family, establishing closer bonds with them.

Many families have been affected by the pandemic, positively.

On the other hand, many families’ relationships have been negatively affected. Many family members are growing tired of constantly sharing the same space, the same meals, with the same people every day!. We are constantly being surrounded by our family members, and are sharing much more time with them than what we are used to. We grow tired of sitting at the dinner table with our parents, siblings, and other family members, and constantly talking about the same subject. We grow tired of sharing the same routine, every day since the pandemic started.

Little problems, like who is going to set the table for dinner, or who gets to brush their teeth first thing in the morning, arise. Practising social distancing since March has made us hate these little problems. Problems like these wouldn't be a detail, in normal life per se.

In addition, the bonds which we have with those family members which we are not seeing, and are not able to see because of social distancing and the implicit rules we have to follow, have slackened. Many of us are not able to see our grandparents, our uncles, our little cousins, and other family members. Even though we can stay in touch with them, check up on them, and constantly ask if they are feeling well, and healthy, the bond is not as strong as it used to be.

Writer: Catalina Batalla