Over the past couple of months you, if you have children, have probably tried to set up some home boundaries while sheltering in place. Maybe you claimed a work space in the kitchen while trying to set up Zoom school for your kids in their bedrooms. Maybe you have mined some tips online on how to make it all work smoothly. So. How has it all worked out for you?

Not exactly as planned, right? Don’t feel bad. You’re far from alone. In the opinion video above we asked three families — a single dad with two spirited daughters, a family of four with a son home from college who struggles with his sudden loss of freedom and a blended family with five kids from three marriages. They filmed themselves and share what it has been like to work, parent, school, eat, sleep and hang out all jammed under one roof for three months straight.

As states start to open up and end Phase 1 of the great pandemic parenting experiment, families across the country have — through trial and error — managed to navigate all of this with varying degrees of success and failure.

Maybe this all looks familiar. But what happens next? Parents are still strained. Kids still miss having sleepovers. School is ending. Summer is coming. The center is not holding. What are the lessons we learned that will help with surviving Phase 2?