The COVID-19 pandemic has been a double-edged sword in enduring hardship and enjoying unity for many families. This was certainly the case for Jessica Alba and her loved ones. The actor and entrepreneur tells SELF that his family relied on each other a lot while going through challenges like isolation and loss during the pandemic. “A lot of my family members have been affected by it,” Alba says of the virus. “It was scary.”
While Alba, her husband Cash Warren and their three children (Honor, 13, Haven, 10, and Hayes, 3) remained healthy, many relatives fell ill, including several who died and died. others who have had scary battles. In February this year, Alba shared that her father Mark had recently recovered from COVID-19 and was also undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. This summer, his younger brother Joshua Alba revealed a terrifying battle with COVID-19 in late 2020. (He made multiple trips to the ER, and weeks after recovering, on Christmas morning, collapsed from embolisms related to his illnesses.)
But the pandemic has also been an opportunity to bond and practice gratitude to one another as a family. “I think as a family we’ve tried to lean on each other and focus on what we have – and that we need to spend quality time with each other,” explains Alba, 40. “We constantly try to remind the children of what we have and how grateful we are. Alba strongly believes that they came out on the other side together more tightly and resiliently. “When you can get away with it, that just makes you stronger,” Alba says. “We got away with it.”
In Alba’s house, leaning on each other means not only getting through the hard times, but also being joyful and letting go together. Sometimes it looks like Alba and her kids relaxing in face masks (the fun kind!) and being pampered. “We like to do in-home spa treatments,” says Alba. “We’re even going to get Cash involved, or my parents if they’re around.” Other times it’s getting your hands dirty with cooking or crafting. “We’ll do little gifts at home, nifty things,” Alba says.
For a more active form of stress relief and family bonding, Alba and her family turn to video games. Alba, who is currently partnering with Nintendo to promote the Nintendo Switch, says playing motion-based video games is a major source of collective decompression for her family, including her children and parents. “It’s nice to be able to kind of cut your brain off from the day-to-day work and get lost in an adventure within a game,” says Alba. “I just think it’s really fun.”
The immersive physical nature of these movement-focused games – Alba names Nintendo Switch games Just Dance 2022 and Mario Golf: Super Rush as family favorites – also helps everyone get into their bodies. Engaging both physically and mentally makes it easier to be in the moment with each other, especially compared to other forms of screen time. “I feel like I’m not distracted by emails and texts while I’m playing. And the same with my kids and my husband,” Alba says. “It allows us to focus all about it and being there to play a game together.”
Not to mention, adds Alba, that the game allows them to get a little more exercise and crack (both effective forms of stress relief). Alba says that at home, the ultimate indicator that the family is spending quality time together is the amount of laughter in the room. “We laugh a lot,” Alba says. “For me, it’s always the litmus test of whether we should keep doing something or not.”
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