While the pandemic has challenged the modern world in ways like never before, our children have provided joy, respite and often distraction from the wider goings on. Australian author Jamila Rizvi has been navigating lockdown in Melbourne, all the while observing how this major event has impacted on her four-year-old son, Rafi.

“Rituals have been essential for getting us all through this period but especially Rafi,” Jamila said.

“I’ve been unwell in the past and so we have kept Rafi home from kinder during most of this year, much to our disappointment. This has meant we’ve had to create structure within the days for him ourselves, whether that’s cooking in the afternoons or bike rides in the mornings or piano lessons on Friday.”

Jamila was actively seeking resources to support her family during Melbourne’s lockdown. While she found a tonne of information about COVID-19, the science aspect, she was not finding the storytelling aspect, the emotional portion of the narrative that she could see kids were in need of. Inspired by the moment in time, Jamila wrote a children’s book.

“I’m a Hero Too very delicately helps little people grieve for the things that have changed in their world before moving them to a place of empowerment, which is so important for kids this age.”

During this time of upheaval, Jamila, like many among us, has felt a strong pull towards her local community.

“I literally could not cope without my village.”

“My husband and I don’t have siblings or parents who live in the same state, so we’ve gathered a circle of friends and neighbours around us. We all look after one another, buckling in around whoever is most in need at that particular moment. During lockdown that’s taken the form of a street library, the kids playing games with one another from opposite sides of the street and a lot of delicious baked goods being left on doorsteps.”

As Jamila has discovered, lockdown has reinforced our innate need for connection, for reassurance, for a sense of belonging.  

“I have felt extraordinarily connected to my community despite largely not being able to interact with them. That people have stayed home to keep one another safe is a testament to the power of caring for your neighbour; quite literally.”

“We’ve become closer to the people who live nearby, especially those with children, and it’s been a treat to have more time with Rafi in the all-important year before school.”

Jamila grew up in Canberra, enjoying a safe and opportunity filled childhood where craft projects and make believe games were all part of the fun.

“My mum was a primary school teacher which has to be just about the best possible thing for a little kid.”

“My little sister dominates my childhood memories because we are close in age, and while we fought, we also had a lot of fun together.”

As Jamila now observes in her own household, profound learning and growth occurs during that type of unencumbered play and interaction.

In her twenties, Jamila worked for the federal Early Childhood Education and Care Minister, Kate Ellis.

“We would constantly use data showing that 90 per cent of brain development happens in the first five years of life, in the Minister’s speeches. Now I see that fact playing out in my living room every day and am constantly amazed at little peoples capacity to learn and learn quickly.”

Jamila and her husband are all the time on a learning journey themselves, sharing in Rafi’s quick milestones and development.

“Rafi is smart, energetic, curious, kind and relentlessly busy. I have discovered new forms of physical exhaustion, renewed my propensity for silliness and learned to see the world with wonder again. That’s all thanks to him.”

In 2018 Jamila published a book, The Motherhood. The book features a collection of letters penned by local Australian identities, sharing their own experiences during those first crucial months after welcoming a newborn into the world.

“I found the first few months of being a mum really hard. Having defined myself by work most of my life, and being a card-carrying extrovert, I felt isolated, lonely and lacking in identity. Something changes around the six-month mark when I began to find my feet, my work-life fit and my ferocious joy in being a mum. Now, I cannot imagine life without Rafi and still get excited when I go and pick him up from kinder, just to be in his company.”

Jamila hopes that this book helps others through that first chapter of motherhood. As is the case with lockdown, small gestures go a long way and help to remind others that they are not alone.

“I would implore anyone reading this who knows someone with a newborn, to reach out in any way you can. Whether it’s a note of support, a gift left on the doorstep, an offer to run to the supermarket or a cup of tea – everything helps during that difficult time.”

It has been a year of great change, especially for those with young children. Those ‘heroes’, like the hero in Jamila’s book, have taken on new guises during the pandemic. It has been a collective experience. No corner of the world has avoided the aftershocks of the virus that continue to reverberate.

In Jamila’s hometown of Melbourne, still amid one of the most stringent lockdown in the world, everyone has done their bit, caring for one another as local communities learn new ways to move, work, connect and play. Sharing, doing it together, has helped.  

“Over dinner, we always share our best thing, our funniest thing and something that made us grumpy during the day.”

“I find that really helps Rafi process his feelings and thoughts about the day, both the good and the bad. I suspect it also helps my husband and I too with a little incidental gratitude.”

Incidental gratitude, incidental learning and incidental growth have been sprouting all the way through. The young among us have done well, cocooning in their home for a while, discovering new meaning in their everyday. Soon enough, we will all take off in flight, heroes of sorts, during an unprecedented time.

Article by Sinead Halliday

Discover more here: www.jamilarizvi.com.au