Asian Mama Journal

Have I ever thought that our family would be quarantining in a hotel room for 14 days in Hong Kong? The answer is definitely no.

When I say quarantining, I am not talking about the self-regulated quarantining that we are all familiar with, I am talking about the kind where you will get fined and penalized if you step out of the room at all – and for 14 straight days. Instead of being at the comfort of your own home, you actually need to pay for yourself to be quarantining in a hotel.

Honestly, when I knew that we would be going to Hong Kong and that quarantining would be a mandatory requirement, I WAS TOTALLY DEVASTATED. How am I going to entertain a toddler in a tiny room (also with the limited land in HK, everything is a lot smaller, including hotel rooms) for a day, let alone 14 days straight?

I sort of expected the worst when I saw some pictures of my family friends quarantining. A lot of them decided to go through the quarantining because they have some legitimate and worthwhile reasons to enter/re-enter the Hong Kong border (as of now, I think Hong Kong has the strictest quarantine order of all places), and I totally support them doing so because a lot of them are quarantining out of love for their loved ones. So when I found myself in a similar situation, I started to embrace the quarantine period.

Step 1 – So the first step to take if you know you are going to have that quarantine? Know your reasons and embrace them. It is going to make your quarantine a lot more meaningful and purposeful.

Step 2 – Prepare for all needful things. Everyone with a toddler probably knows how important this is. Besides prepping for the long flight itself (25+ hours for us due to new COVID procedures), you will have to think ahead what you will want to do with your toddler in the hotel room. What are your toddler interests? What will help you and your little one have the most fun? What are some materials you will need to prepare in order to make those fun activities happen? How many activities you think you will need for 14 days to keep your toddler engaged and interested? How much luggage space do you have for those materials? And how willing are you to have toys possibly piled up in the hotel room?

Personally, I wanted fun activities that require materials that would not take up much space with our limited luggage space. I also wanted to have a new activity each day to keep things fresh and fun. So here is the list on what I prepared for the trip:

• Color pencils
• Color papers
• A pair of scissors
• Glue stick
• Stickers
• Tape
• Some other small DIY materials (e.g. paper tape and googgly eyes)
• Pom poms
• Printables
  • My Body Printable (to learn about different body parts in Chinese)
  • Coloring sheets printable
  • Valentine’s Day printable (making Valentine’s Day crafts)
  • Alphabets printable (to learn alphabets)
  • Animals printable
  • Shapes printable (to learn about shapes)
• Fun pen
• Surprise Balloon
• Play dough
• Surprise kit x 1
• Wooden blocks (very portable one)

It might look like a long list, but when it comes to the packing, you’d be surprised that they actually all fit into one ziplock bag (besides the play dough, surprise kit and wooden blocks – which I decided will be good for the quarantine and they are not too heavy to carry around)! What is also good about these materials is that they are very versatile and could be made into activities in many ways. Use pom poms as an example – we played with them while having bath (Little Ray loves to see how those pom poms swirl in the bath rub), and we also played them as balls to throw into tissue boxes.

If you have also noticed, the printables are all paper!! So there is literally no weight to them! You would be surprised how Little Ray loved those printables! We also didn’t plan to bring back these materials on our return trip, so they are perfect for our situation.

Step 3 – Feel free to have fun!

Your activities in the hotel room should not only be limited to the materials that you brought along with you!

Some activities that we have done in our hotel room are:

• Looking out of the window and counting/name vehicles on the road
• Jumping on the bed (:p)
• Dance party
• Yoga session
• Bath time with pom poms
• Hide and seek

You can vary the activities depending on your toddler’s age and needs. And guess what? They are also great opportunities for them to get a little workout in because we know they all need that!

Step 4 – Use your creativity!

Besides relying on the materials that we brought along, we are also able to have fun by upcycling some of the items that we received from the hotel. An example would be the empty tissue box that we got after using up all the tissues :p

Step 5 – It is okay to take a breather and get some space

Last but not least, it is okay to take a breather sometimes and acknowledge that you need some personal space! Having a toddler besides you 24/7 is no easy task, especially if it is happening in a room. If your partner is coming along with you, talk about how you want to take shifts. If not, consider some ways that you find helpful so that you can take a breather. For me, as Ray has to work remotely in the hotel room, I have decided that it will be helpful to turn on the Disney channel for a little bit so I can make some space for myself. Little Ray loves dancing to the music and I can also feel recharged again to interact and be engaged with Little Ray.

Onto Day 8 of quarantine already! I assure you that 14 days of quarantine is really not as bad as you imagine. In fact, you might find yourself enjoying those precious moments you get to share with your little ones.

I will be uploading the printables that I created for this quarantine soon. And more to share in the next few days on our second portion of the hotel quarantine!