Meesha Chang, 42, creative consultant, lives with John Witherow, 39, art director, and their two daughters Lucia, 3.5, and Morgan, 1.5, in Pleasantville NY. The family lived in Brooklyn until recently and moved upstate to Pleasantville in November.

In our country, the rules apply depending on the number of cases in the respective region by postcode. The situation is dramatic across America, but I'm only describing my impressions from the city of New York and our new home about an hour north of Manhattan. Depending on the number of cases, the rules are adjusted as to how many people can be in a shop or meet at the same time. Different colours are used to show us how dramatic the current situation is: red is bad, green is OK.

There are a few places in our neighbourhood that are orange, which we try to avoid. Many shops show online how busy they are so that we can plan our visits. You have to keep your distance everywhere. Domestic travel is allowed, but you often have to go into quarantine after travelling, depending on the state.

In New York, masks must be worn in all indoor spaces. I keep seeing people who aren't wearing one or who are wearing them incorrectly, both of which make me extremely upset. Parks and other public spaces are being sanitised.

I'm always very careful, we moved away from New York partly because of corona. We have more space here and can get out into nature more.

John works from home most of the time. When he's in the office, it's only with a mask on and the windows open. I'm self-employed and haven't looked for any jobs since we moved. I look after the children and the household full time. Due to the lack of interaction with other children and less sporting activity, my girls are often not tired in the evenings and our everyday family life is very exhausting for me. I try to take an hour of "me-time" at the weekend.

My older daughter in particular misses her friends. She is not yet in the official preschool. Schools across the country have been closed for a long time in many places and friends of mine are sitting in front of the computer with their children for hours on end doing "virtual learning".

We play a lot at home, do role-playing games and meet up with friends virtually. We also celebrated Babyshowers and Thanksgiving via Zoom. We rarely meet up with people outside, especially when the numbers get worse, I hold back. My girls are also quite confused at the moment due to the move and need a lot of attention and closeness.

We did have a small garden in Brooklyn where the children were at least allowed to go out a bit during the lockdown, but otherwise we were quite cooped up in the city. During the lockdown, we ordered our food home for four months and never went out except to our little garden. Trump's hostility towards Asians led to several racist attacks in the city, I was really scared to go out.

Since our lease expired at the end of October, we took advantage of this fact and moved out of New York. John's office is here in Pleasantville and so the choice of location was clear quite quickly. Now he no longer has to commute, even though he usually works from home. We were able to rent a friend's house here and are very happy to have a small garden again. Many people wanted to get out of New York and the property market here is out of control. Now that we no longer live in the city, we realise how stressful everything was and how happy we are to have more space for our family.

These are clearly not easy times, but I'm doing well and I'm grateful. I'm trying to live in the moment and I'm happy that we're healthy. The children are quite resilient and are happy when we are happy. Sometimes I worry and visualise bad scenarios in connection with corona. But that helps me to remain strict and cautious and to meet as few people as possible.

The children enjoy having both parents at home and, above all, seeing John more often. We are living a very secluded life in a kind of voluntary lockdown, but it makes the most sense for us given the high numbers across the country. We use Facebook's Portal, a smart video device, to see friends and family and play virtual games or make up interactive stories together. Sometimes I hide an old toy only to take it out again a few weeks later - the children don't notice and are delighted. So the days go by quickly. Together with Lucia and Morgan, I've discovered upcycling - we try to turn old objects into new ones. It's fun for all of us and we do handicrafts, make-up and cook to make the days nice.

We've decided that it's safest to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve at home. I haven't seen my family in California for a year now, which is tough. We've ordered all the presents for the children online.

I miss my friends and family. Also, not everything can be ordered online and I'm looking forward to just being able to buy a certain pot of red paint in a shop. I'm also looking forward to a new president who will hopefully be able to reunite and heal a divided country. And I'm very hopeful about the vaccination, which should be here in a few weeks.

My main wish for my children is that they can play with other children again and do without social distancing.