“The family admin comes back every year.” That would be in full conviction, if 2020 then Year under normal circumstances. Today is actually #FamilyAdminDay, on which people are celebrated who otherwise keep IT or entertainment electronics fit for their loved ones on site all year round.

The strange Corona -Year has left deep marks here as well.

Christmas would have been normal for most hard-working people Family admins, the highlight of the season means: They would help the devices of the technology generation 2020 under the Christmas tree to get up and running. Then usually a few days of relaxation until the new year and the new tasks wait.

Everything different in the year 2020 But this Advent season is completely different, like the whole year. The peculiarities already began in spring: suddenly, when the children had to be entertained at school from home, some parents noticed that teachers were doing – really – work. And who would have thought a year before that the old knowledge from your studies would come into play in descriptive statistics and that exponential growth could easily be explained? Let’s not kid ourselves: The professor would be proud of the author of these lines! At least if he doesn’t remember the exams and likes to glorify the old days.

Science in general: Many parts of the population learned this year from the viral example how they work and that it does not offer the generally accepted philosopher’s stone, but is a learning process that is continuous in all phases. And just like the family admin, who is constantly faced with new variants of known problems, science learns through intensive research and trial and error. The result is often difficult to predict beforehand.

Not everyone is an expert who claims to be And a painful fact has also become clear: not everyone who has graduated from the inside of a lecture hall and has a corresponding awareness of communication is really a serious interlocutor. Although they should know better, some argue not scientifically or only with half-truths. The question of what some of the theses of the “lateral thinkers” have to do with “thinking” is also in the room.

However, one must be lucky that this pandemic is in the Form only occurred this year. Digitization could cushion some things through home office, video calls and the like. Speaking of video calls: While video conferences were previously only for nerds and IT people, technology suddenly became the general focus as a substitute for personal encounters. This breathtakingly fast development also makes Thomas, our narrator from the first story, thoughtful.

Christmas Eve in times of mask and social distancing At least this evening looks like it always does: A bit of normality in a surreal year! Due to the pandemic, we largely avoided the large family visits. Even if it hurts.

Christmas Eve is not yet so affected – we usually celebrate it contemplatively at home. Like this year too. After the meal the gifts were unpacked. My better half Julia and I gave each other fitness watches. The motionless home office and the unsocial proximity to the snack closet left – at least for me – extensive (e) traces. We want to do something about it!

Lisa, our big one, got her first smartphone. I wanted to set up and register for her before the party. “Nothing easier than that,” the prospectus promised me in a reassuring tone of explanation, “very easy, via browser!”. As a family admin I could have known better, of course it was NOT easy to do via browser. After a few emails and two hotline calls, (along with minutes of Christmas music on hold, which was in no way inferior to “Last Christmas” in terms of penetrance) also solved this problem. Christmas could come!

The drone for Max, our youngest, it was easier to get ready to go. We only have to practice flying. Chasing the cats out of the room with it and flying to the Christmas tree at full speed has worked very well; Getting the device out between half-shaved paper reindeer and frightened Christmas angels was more difficult then.

What was that year anyway? Who would have thought that the discussion about the mandatory receipt at the beginning of the year would appear so obscenely luxurious a few months later? And no one in our family would have expected a year ago that we would talk to Grandma Hilde via video call this Christmas!