[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Well, it's 2021. Parenting has never been an easy job,

But especially during a pandemic, it is very challenging.

And whatever the state of your family was before the pandemic,

The pandemic came, and it just exaggerated whatever was happening.

So if there were problems inside, it exaggerated those problems,

If there were good things happening, it actually kind of strengthened those things.

But today we want to look at how can you live and have a happy family during pandemic.

For you, what was the biggest like change and challenge of parenting here with the pandemic?

Well, I think first of all having the kids home 24 hours a day...

All of a sudden all of us moms instantly became teachers.

It wasn't like a choice to teach our children, we were just kind of tossed into that.

And then having them home...

I mean there's just totally, a totally a different dynamic to having your kids home all the time.

I love summer breaks, I love breaks when my kids are home,

But one thing I find totally interesting when my kids are home is

We eat lunch — let's just pretend like we eat at noon.

They finish at 12:10

At 12:15 they will come and say "Mom, we're hungry. What's there to eat?"

I'm like "Seriously?!"

And this was months of this because everyone was stuck at home.

And you're trying to balance healthy eating and healthy routines and school and tons of laundry

Because kids are home all the time, making messes and cleaning house,

Husbands are home with work, it's just...

It was a lot to take in all at once.

But! We made it through.

And there's still more of it here that we're working through now.

I'd say one thing that probably really helped for us too was finding fun things to do together

Like, on purpose, so

Like Becca and Anna like to play Catan, so we'll play Catan with them

Or Joshua and I, we like to play MarioKart

Uh, even the whole family really gets into MarioKart.

And Uno. And Uno!

Making purposeful times with the family together.

I think establishing a healthy routine is very important.

Because then you get used to that,

It helps you manage your day a little more instead of just wondering

"Well what am I going to do now? What am I going to do now?"

Well now it's time for this.

Because we still had work to do

It wasn't like we were all just on vacation for months,

And the kids still had school, so they had their school time,

Then meal time, then play time and study time,

We just had to figure out a routine that worked with us all being in the house at the same time.

Joshua!

Awww!

Sarah we came to pick you up!

Hey Sarah, how was school today? Good.

I missed you so much, Sarah.

Another thing I think was very helpful was establishing healthy eating patterns.

Because if I let my kids raid the fridge and feed themselves, Oh gosh

They would be eating cereal and chocolate and bread.

My kids love bread. Oh, and white rice.

Plain rice. Just rice. Sarah would ask for it with a little shyoyu, soy sauce.

During this whole time we started experimenting with healthier options like whole grain rice and more vegetables

And more baked things, not fried,

And just introducing them to new things

Like different soups and foods that are healthy but fun

But not just junk.

It's amazing — eating healthy helps you have the right type of energy

You don't go on these highs and lows.

Sugar high and then you fall and you drop and you're cranky.

And it would fill them up so they're not begging for food every 5 minutes.

So a lot of people comment, they're like "What a beautiful, wonderful family! You guys look perfect."

So... are we perfect?

All the time!

Do you see my halo?

We definitely have had our moments, especially during the pandemic, has brought it out

When you're with each other all the time Yeah

And our house is much smaller than the house we had either in the States or in Brazil,

So you're in each others' business all the time

What— how have we kind of dealt with that?

When someone's got a little upset or when the kids need to be alone or one of us...

Needs to be alone. Well at one point we said "Well the car's available."

If anyone needs some alone time, you can just go sit in the car a little bit.

And actually I do that, don't I?

He does that every morning, he goes...

I'll go get in the car and go for a little drive to a park I really like

And it's the perfect time to kind of, like, just stretch out a little bit.

So you know a lot of things that really helped me was having close friends that I could call up

I would call up my mom,

I'd call up my sisters, I had other friends that I was texting,

And just getting advice and encouragement

Or just complaining a little to someone who understood what I was going through.

And having that support system really, really is helpful.

Not only during a pandemic, but anytime

Because raising children is not something that we just all know the answers to, you know?

Seeking advice from our parents and our grandparents or older ladies...

We have a lot of wise ladies in our church that we can—that I like to seek advice from

I think it's very important to, if you don't know what to do, if you don't know the answer, to find someone who can help you.

And don't feel ashamed to open up about something that maybe you feel like is embarrassing

Because chances are somebody else is also struggling with the same thing,

Wondering how to keep their kids in line, or keep them entertained or just to keep a happy family atmosphere.

A healthy family atmosphere really does take work

And you got to be intentional about it

It just doesn't happen by accident.

One thing that we always do too is every evening we have family devotion time

Where we read the verse of the day from the Bible

And we take turns praying — praying for people that are sick or for our family

And also we like to dance!

I'm sure you've seen in previous videos, we do a lot of dancing in our house.

And we turn on a good Christian upbeat song

And the kids dance, it helps them get their energy out,

But also gives them positive energy because it's exciting, we're praising Jesus, and it's something good that we can do.

So it's amazing, if you're depressed or sad or down, if you start dancing and have happy music on

It really does change the atmosphere

We found things that really helped us day by day, and still today

I try not to let the girls play on the Switch or do any electronic games before they go to school

It seems like it puts them in a bad mood to want to leave for school.

So before school we turn on music,

Or we can watch Bible stories online,

But no gaming, no... phone

A lot of times they'll do artistic things and that's when they'll start drawing things

Or Sarah makes all these origami things that are just amazing

Yeah It's like my goodness!

(Singing) Whatcha making Sarah, Sarah Sarah Bear-ah, Sarah Bear-a?

Whatcha making? Let me see! I'm making a dog.

A dog? From Origami? Yea.

How do you know how to do this?

It's my teacher. The teacher at school?

Aw, that's so cute.

Because let me tell you what,

Turning on the tv and leaving that as your babysitter is a lot easier than

Me personally spending time with them and investing in them

But, it's those times that they're going to remember

When they grow up, are they going to be like "yea, my mom just let me watch tv whenever I wanted"

Or are they going to be like "Oh yea, my mom played games with me, or she taught me how to make a recipe"

Or she taught me how to sow

Those are the things that are going to be positive memories

That we want them to then pass on to their children and grandkids.

So I like the little post it note that you have on your computer

Do you want to share what it says?

I think it says "Be the mom you want your kids to remember"

It just goes along with what you're saying

I have to put in reminders for me to have a positive attitude

It's a work in... I'm a work in progress.

Even with a healthy family, it starts with a healthy marriage too

And although I don't feel like our marriage is perfect yet,

I do feel we have a lot of love and understanding

And working with each others strengths and weaknesses

I have plenty of my own weaknesses!

How do we go about that?

Well, we used to always look forward to when our parents would come,

Either set, because they would help watch the kids so we could go out on dates

Because until now, well Joshua just turned 5

But before he was just too young to hardly leave with random people

This last year, you know, with all our families not being able to come visit,

It's been extra stressful — I mean not stressful, but

We haven't been able to really take time away, just the two of us

So for those first months we were just all stuck together in a house,

What is going on?!

Mommy put a tent up for us.

Chillin' in your tent.

So it's hard to just be Nate and I

And then as soon as schools went back, I went back to school

So I was studying in Shinjuku for 5 hours a day,

And then we'd come home and have housework,

So it was very hard for us to have just alone time.

But you have to just, after the kids go to bed,

Watch something together, or listen to something or try to hang out a little bit

Except that, come 9:00 at night, I am not much good at anything.

What would you say to somebody who is watching and like

"Wow- you know, that's great for you guys, but my family is a mess and I've screwed up."

What about that person?

Well, it's never too late to start trying and start investing in your family

If your marriage is in shambles, start there

Seek advice in what areas you should improve on first,

You know, with your children, if you don't hug them or you don't say that you love them,

Those are simple, small things you can do that will make a huge difference in their life

Because kids need that affection, they need that love, they need that physical touch

And I think that is very, very important

Keep an eye on who your kids friends are

Because they will be highly influenced by their friends

We always tell the girls, because they go out and play with their friends

That we want them to influence their friends in positive ways

and never have their friends influence them negatively

I think it's very important for us as parents, as mothers

To keep an eye on what friendships our kids are developing.

In a future video we want to do questions and answers,

So if you have any specific questions

Maybe it's about parenting or families

Or maybe it's something fun like "Hey, have you ever gone to this place? Or tried this?"

Whatever it might be, feel free to post your questions down here

And in a couple of weeks we'd like to respond to some of those

Is there anything else that you would add at all?

Well, if they have any questions about our kids,

For our kids —you know— if you would like to ask Becca or Anna, Sarah or Joshua anything

Please write it in the comments and then we'll do a video in the future

and sit them down and see what their answer are to your questions.

Could be very interesting. Yeah, it could.

Well we're so thankful for each and every one of you that has been watching us and following us

If you haven't subscribed yet, please do so, it really does help this channel grow

And we appreciate you guys so much

And until next time, we'll see you on Life in Japan

Bye bye! bye.