Drew Barrymore is getting candid about the overwhelming task of balancing work and her regular parenting routine with the added challenge of homeschooling while her family follows social distancing guidelines surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The actress — who shares daughters Frankie, 6 this month, and Olive, 7½, with ex Will Kopelman — called in to the Today show on Tuesday, giving Savannah Guthrie the rundown on how life at home has been as of late as she tries to take on educating her girls while schools remain closed.
“School started, and it all went out the window,” Barrymore, 45, said of her “inventive” ideas for her daughters’ day-to-day, like using chalk to make hopscotch drawings and taking bike rides. “The minute I thought, ‘Oh, I’m three weeks in, I’ve got this,’ I cried every day, all day long.”
“It was the messiest plate I’ve ever held in my life, to be the teacher, the parent, the disciplinarian, the caretaker. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, and teachers have children [of their own]. Do they survive it because they get to go away and work with other kids? Have they had their children in their classroom? How did this all work?’ ” she added.
“I didn’t think I needed to respect and appreciate teachers any more than I did,” Barrymore said.
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The first cases of a mysterious respiratory illness — what is now known as COVID-2019, a form of coronavirus — began in Wuhan, China in late December. Since then, the virus has spread worldwide, leading the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency, the first since the zika epidemic in 2016.
As of Tuesday morning, there have been at least 580,878 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and 23,607 deaths, according to a New York Times database.
The U.S. now has the highest number of cases worldwide by a large margin, though the true numbers are likely far higher because sufficient testing has not been available.
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