Millions of adults across the United States and Canada have been balancing work obligations with parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri is no different.
The 2017 Landon Donovan MLS MVP described some of the finer details during a first-person story in The Playersβ Tribune. Specifically, itβs meant developing a routine with his 11-year-old daughter, Connie, and explaining to her how the public-health crisis is reshaping daily life.
βWe talk about everything with Connie,β Valeri wrote. βSheβs aware of whatβs going on with the virus and the international crisis. We only have one daughter, so that also makes it a bit more β I donβt know if I should say easy, but everything falls on us three. The usual questions are, βWhy is this or that happening? Why is society doing a certain thing? And how are we going to come out of this at some point?ββ
As Valeriβs guided his daughter through isolation, heβs also focused on fitness for an eventual MLS season return. Heβs been with Portland since the 2013 season, and is on the verge of reaching the 80-goal, 80-assist club. Through 213 regular-season matches, Valeri has 78 goals and 81 assists.
But he's also turned to the bigger picture, an overall worldview during this unprecedented time.
"Even as restrictions ease, we still have an obligation to take precautions to contain the spread," Valeri wrote. "That means following those steps with conscience, with the awareness that itβs not just something that can happen to you, but you can pass it on to someone else. Honestly, itβs hard to isolate ourselves, but we have to. Itβs the best we can do to prevent this disease. Thereβs no other way to minimize, at least for now, the contagion curve, so, if itβs possible we have to do it."
For more from Valeri in The Playersβ Tribune, check out the entire story here.