ALL IS NOT QUIET ON THE HOME FRONT

When the lockdown went into effect on March the 15th, 2020 daily life of my familly was turned upside down. My part-time job as an ICT-project manager became a fulltime job, my personal and commercial photo-projects drifted into the background. I can’t live without photography, that's why I started with the following visual story

LOCKDOWN

ALL IS NOT QUIET ON THE HOME FRONT © Bram Penninckx

Wannes talking to his grandmother, who is very sick and infected by corona.

An early morning self-portrait just after my second nervous breakdown, due to the immense workload and stress of not being a good father for my children.

Jolien, gives Wannes a scolding after he fought with his brother and sister. Of our three children he finds it the most difficult to adapt, presumably because he’s too young to understand this corona lockdown.

Sometimes when the photographer becomes part of the story, a magic moment happens.

Aino painted five glasses, with the name of every member of our family on it, to prevent infection.

Due to social distancing, a bicycle and footbridge has been blocked, forcing a detour for our daily bike ride.

Aino with her rabbit. I bought it years ago in a Swedish furniture shop. Since then both are inseparable. She lost the bunny. Totally heartbroken she went to bed. But the next morning her beloved animal simply turned up in the middle of the living room floor. The culprit is still at large.

Our regular evening walk with the love of my life and with our true wealth.

AT THE FRONT

All is not quiet on home front. Our comfortable daily routine was overwhelmed by the corona-virus and omnipresent face-masks.Our children were introduced to distance learning, Zoom-sessions with the teacher, preteaching and self-study. It left a very bitter aftertaste. Every day was a high-wire act for us as inexperienced but tenacious acrobats. Depending on our schedule, we had to wear different hats; teacher, coach, parent, playmate and employee.

Here’s our chief-animator and supermom. In her previous life Jolien was a girl scout, which nowadays comes in handy.

Finally, I found some time to edit the photo-series. Photography is my first love and inextricably linked to my happiness.

Lenne and Aino talking and laughing with their grandmother. She was infected by the corona-virus and was very sick but is slowly recovering.<

My everything finding some peace and tranquility during a yoga-session with the kids. Her restless husband is the cause of a lot of stress in our household. I’m very happy yoga helps her to find some much needed rest.

Lenne’s desk, filled with drawings and calculations. He’s easily drawn into an imaginary world which he creates to escape reality.

Kissing my love, the lockdown created a lot of arguments and tension between us, but we are still very much in love.

Jolien is correcting Lenne’s schoolwork. According to the directives of the ministry of education, children have to work 4 hours a day and parents should spend two hours a week with each child. In reality our kids work 5 to 6 hours a day and we spend up to 5 hours a day coaching, teaching and correcting.

Jolien during a videoconference-call with the management of the school where she teaches. They just decided to reopen in September and meanwhile continue with distance learning.

Aino and Jolien with a face mask, on their way to buy more... face masks.

Lenne, exhausted and totally fed up with homeschooling. Surely, it wasn’t always a walk in the park, but we are so proud of him. During the past 3 months he worked very hard and made the best of it.

The kids and Jolien, reading in ‘Monstrous microbes’ by well-known virologist Marc Van Ranst. In this book, he explains viruses and bacteria to children. Now Wannes finally starts to understand the strange world we live.

THE NEW NORMAL

Lockdown went towards the exit and a new normal was imposed. The composition of bubbles became a new challenge with the mathematicians. It's no longer conceivable to see people in the street without a facemask. If someone wore one a couple of months ago, it would have raised quite a few eyebrows. Today, it's the opposite: people without one, are seen as potential super spreaders.

AALL IS NOT QUIET ON THE HOME FRONT © Bram Penninckx

Getting ready for yet another videoconference-meeting. In the meantime, I realize my corona-hairstyle urgently needs a hairdresser.

A waiter, very cautiously coming into our bubble.

Poetry, inspired by corona and lockdown, by Lenne: “Listen daddy, - Flying is a word - I want to be able to do - Bounce and oops? - r z Z”

Aino, on her way to her Scouts camp, for an entire week. Due to the lockdown, she did not see her Scout troop for more than 6 months, which made saying goodbye to mom and dad even harder

An early morning bus ride with Wannes, who was barely awake..

THE RIPPLE BECAME A WAVE

With summer approaching, measures were relaxed. But even a blind man could see the omens of the second wave. On vacation in Normandy, we received a rather ominous alarming phone call: someone in Lenne's scouts group tested positive for the virus. We immediately had to find a hospital, to test the whole family. Fortunately, the results were all negative, but this was proof that the corona was here to stay.

En route to our vacation spot in Normandy we stopped for a picknick.

A corona-proof self-portrait in the sanitary block of the camping.

While waiting for the result of the test, we went into quarantine. Suddenly a heavy thunderstorm passed over our heads and we sheltered in our tent. Jolien offered some sweets to the kids, to get their minds off the seemingly endless lightning-strikes and ease their fear of the corona-virus.

Visiting an Atlantic Wall bunker complex near Fécamp.

A new corona-influenced trend: the 'pick up your kid' drive-in

The corona-game; Aino and her niece fooling around with their napkin/facemask.

BALLOONS AND HAND SANITIZER

After summer vacation schools reopen. The children are welcomed by masked teachers, with disinfectant gel and balloons. The number of infections is rising fast and the future looks uncertain.

Back to school

Someone in Aino's class tested positive. All her classmates had to play in a closed off section of the playground, to avoid close contact with the rest of the schoolchildren.

It's not easy to fit clothes with a face mask and a very annoying photographer.

Our oldest son discovered different uses of a face mask. The pandemic indeed influenced our daily life in different ways.

Although face masks became commonplace and, according to virologists, wearing them is a necessity, we may never really get used to them.

Because children below the age of 12 are not seen as the the driving force behind the pandemic, they're not required to wear a face mask.

Like father, like son… “Look dad, I made a self-portrait with a face mask.”

MOUTH FULL OF MASKS

The memory of the pre-corona society faded like a yellowed picture from a dusty family photo album. Everybody yearns for a world withour social distance and antibacterial hand gel.

Lenne enjoys the healing sunrays during one of our corona-walks. Ever since the first lockdown, he finds it very hard to adjust. He is angry at people who are not respecting the rules, confused about the lack of perspective and often depressed. Like all of us, he yearns for a covid-free world.

Wannes showing off his mandarine to his grandfather. Although the kids fully understand that being too close, sneeze or cough could infect their beloved grandparents, the idea that they pose a real danger is hard to grasp. Since the beginning of March they haven’t been able to give them a kiss or cuddle. Luckily an outdoor playdate is still possible.

Just another day at the home office

Jolien with a rather annoying problem, wearing a face masks in cold and damp weather results in fogged up glasses.

Lenne and one of his best friends, at the history museum. While looking at prehistoric human remains, they reflected on the huge number of people who died because of covid-19.

Our kids are genuine bookworms and were therefore lucky that the local library did not close during the second lockdown.

Everything is set for a corona-proof nightly visit of St. Nicholas. Our daughter Aino was scared that we could infect the 1700-year-old saint. Therefore, we placed hand sanitizer and a face mask next to the carrots.

Wearing a face mask in public places is required in Brussels, even when you are constructing a hut in the park. Although we abide by the rules, covering up when no one else is around, seems a bit overkill.

ONE YEAR CREPT ON

A year ago our bubble retreated into our home.

525.600 Minutes of working from home and distance learning....

8766 Hours of staring towards statistics of infections, hospital admissions and vaccinations...

365 Days filled with walks to escape an acute case of claustrophobia...

52 Weeks packed with screens, the virtual world and reality merged...

12 Months where the spontaneous applause for the healthcare providers was replaced by a capella choir of complainers... One year infected by neologisms like covexit Blursday and quaranteams....

Even the characters from this nativity scene cannot escape the mandatory face mask. The kids found it intriguing and funny, because in this case the infection risk seems to be rather limited.

Because all wellness facilities are closed, my daughter and wife created their own DIY spa and treated each other with a relaxing foot massage.

““Look daddy, now the corona-monster can’t see me”

A masked visit by by mother and her partner

The girls having their mother and daughter moment. When Aino goes to bed, Jolien starts her evening shift in her home office. Although we fully understand the importance of working from home, we are fed up with it – as most people are.

Infected by cabin fever, we had a gender-neutral costume party.

After a long working day, sitting behind her home office desk, . Jolien stretches her muscles, which hopefully alleviates the her back pain.

Due to the new covid-19 variants, Lenne and his classmates have to wear face masks at school.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Reluctantly and ‛armed‛ with a mouth mask, our bubble got back up on the horse. The falling curve and vaccination campaign opened up the possibility of birthday parties, much to the delight of our offspring. We relived our first time we...

…we went to the office. This one started with an...ironically enough...online meeting.

...we were able to go to swimming class, with a mouth mask.

...enjoyed the street theatre

...went to the movies

...were vaccinated.

AFTER SHOCK

As a parting gift, the virus had one more surprise in store, a family infection and thus quarantine. Seasoned in homeschooling but with lead in our boots, we endured this aftershock.